Stay With Me
by StormageddonDarkLadyOfAll
Summary: Hermione doesn't remember. The War is over, her friends are married with kids of their own. She herself has a daughter and is pregnant again. She is also married- to Draco Malfoy. But she doesn't remember even liking him. Will Draco give up on her, or will he continue to make her fall in love with him, as he has for the past ten years? Rated M for language and sexual references
1. Diary Surprises

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise. Which is kind of annoying.

A/N: This is my first DraMione fic, and it's kind of nerve-wracking so please be nice and give me some reviews, as they would be greatly appreciated. This fic is based loosely on the movie '50 First Dates' (One of my favourite Romcoms) but also (I'm hoping) 'The Notebook' which is a really great film and if you haven't seen it, I recommend it most highly. Including to the male population. My dad says that every guy-ish guy he's ever met will secretly admit to loving 'The Notebook'.

A/N: So, as I was saying, please let me know what you think. The chapters in this will be a lot longer than my other fics, but I wanted to put more in there, so I'm hoping it works.

A/N: As always, have fun, say hi, REVIEW!

* * *

I woke up after feeling little pokes in my back, three of them to be exact. Groaning, I turned to dislodge what I imagined to be a book and came in contact with a tiny hand. My eyes snapped open and I looked over to see what was going on.

She stared back at me with huge grey eyes behind wild honey blonde hair. Her thumb was in her rosebud mouth and she was hugging a teddy bear that seemed too big for her. She was dressed in polka dot yellow and white pyjamas. Pulling her thumb out of her mouth, she frowned at me.

"Mumma, have you forgotten me again?"She asked, her voice sweet as a bird's. My head reeled, and my eyes widened. "You have. Well, can I sleep with you anyway?"

She sounded hopeful, and I didn't want to disappoint her, but I knew she couldn't possibly be mine. I was only seventeen, and she must have been at least three. Besides that, I had no clue who she was. Keeping my thoughts to myself, I opened the covers. She smiled at me and climbed in, finding a space between my chin and the top of my thighs to curl up in, where she seemed to fit perfectly. She hugged her teddy closer to her chest.

"So," I began, shifting her curly hair away from my face. "What's your name then?" If she thought I had forgotten her _again_, that meant I must have forgotten her _before_. She must have been used to this by now. At least, I hoped so.

"Cassie," She replied, a yawn in her voice.

"Short for Cassiopeia. **(A/N: Pronounced: Cass-ee-oh-pay-ah) **You picked it." I jumped as I heard the voice coming from next to me. A voice that was all too familiar.

Cassie turned her head to smile at me, reaching up to pat my cheek when she saw I wasn't taking this part of the information package all that well. I moved both of us closer to the end of the bed and turned my own body around, keeping her safe behind me. Draco Malfoy smiled back at me. It dawned on me then that I'd never seen him smile, only smirk and occasionally grin. He never smiled. I refused to think of his smile as nice.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?"He sighed. I hated him.

"Look at your hand, Hermione."

"What?" I demanded.

"Your left hand." He clarified, pity in his flint grey eyes. Making sure Cassie was tucked firmly behind me, I peered at my left hand critically. I fought back a gasp when I saw the two bands on my ring finger, one a simple silver loop and the other, blue stones bordered by white gems in a silver setting. When I looked back at him, he nodded silently to himself.

"I'm your husband, she's your daughter."

"You used a love spell, didn't you? This is a trick." What other explanation was there?

"Come here, Cass." He opened his arms to her and she eagerly climbed over me and curled into him, looking on the verge of tears.

"Mumma forgot me again, Daddy." She whimpered into his chest. She seemed perfectly comfortable there. He enfolded her in his arms and held her close. I told myself not to think of it as cute.

"I know, baby. It's alright. She'll remember you in the morning."

Hearing this and knowing this meant another violation of my mind, I jumped out of the bed and took three massive steps away, bumping harshly into a cupboard. I kept my eyes on him, watching for any move towards me. He sighed again and pulled Cassie up with him. Holding her hand, he walked with her to the door, turning to me just before they closed the door.

"I'll go sleep in her room tonight. I'll explain everything in the morning, I promise. I love you." The last statement shocked me so hard I couldn't utter a word after him.

After they left the room, I hastily found something to keep against the door so he couldn't come in and took up post at the end of the bed. I told myself not to fall asleep, to stand guard.

That was the last thought I had before I fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

I woke with my head resting against the bedpost. My neck had a huge kink in it and I tried to knead it out. It was then I noticed what woke me up. I heard knocking coming from the door and I moved behind it, demanding to know who it was.

"It's Kitzy, Mistress 'Mione. Master Draco said you would be needing your diary with breakfast this morning." The voice was high, wailing and unfamiliar. Knowing it wasn't Malfoy, I pulled the trunk away from the door and opened it a few inches. A house-elf stared back at me, her eyes vibrantly blue. She was dressed in a light sun dress and so I knew she was a free elf. "I have your breakfast, Miss. Can I come in?" She held up her tray of toast, cereal and coffee as evidence and I pushed the door open a few more inches.

She squeezed in and I slammed the door. She seemed not to notice, and she walked over to the bedside table, placing her tray on top of it. She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a leather bound book, smiling at me as she placed it on one of the pillows on the bed. She set to work making the bed, pulling the covers tight and tucking them in.

"You don't have to do that, you know." I told her, hurrying over to do it for her.

"It's my job, Miss." She seemed to guess my next argument. "You pay me plenty of galleons to do this, Miss. I've got my own place to sleep and I work very good hours and I get every Saturday off. I'm an employee Miss, not a slave. You sorted that out for all of us."

"I did?"

"Yes Miss. Some house-elves are not even house-elves any more. Some are lawyers and nurses. Some choose to remain looking after households. But all of them are paid. We even have the right to quit if we choose. And you did that for us, Miss."

"I did?" I echoed myself. She just smiled and continued to make the bed. Then she checked for dirty clothes and told me she would come back to vacuum the room later.

Before she left, she explained about my diary. "You started writing in it as soon as you realised you were forgetting. You write in it every day."

"When did I start forgetting, Kitzy?" I sat down on the bed and picked up my diary, looking down at the frayed edges.

"About ten years ago, Miss. Right after the Battle of Hogwarts. The Healers say it was the effects of the trauma." I looked up then, completely unnerved. Kitzy smiled- she seemed more kindly grandmother than house-elf to me in the few minutes I had known her.

"Trauma?"

"Read your diary, Miss. It will explain everything. I'll come back later and you can talk with Master Draco and Miss Cassie," She left before I could say anything else, not that I could form words in that second anyway.

I moved over to the tray and blindly started eating some of the toast, surprised it was still slightly warm. I drank some of the coffee, black and sweet, just how I liked it. It gave me a buzz and I was able to open my diary.

_When you read this, it will be because you have forgotten who you are. Just know that everything you see and everything you hear, it is all true. No word is written under duress, nor is this diary charmed. This is totally your own words and feelings. Know you are not alone in this. Ask your family, they will help you. Go to your Healers and they will explain more. Just trust yourself. It will be fine._

_It's all alright._

When I read that last statement, I knew it was my writing. I remembered saying that to myself at night, when I had gotten through particularly gruelling days and couldn't sleep. I would hug my arms around my own waist and rock myself to sleep, promising myself it was alright. I took a deep breath and turned the page.

_Today, I realised for the first time that I had forgotten what has happened. After asking Harry and Ron to explain it to me, and after going to Healers, we have come to the conclusion that my mind had blocked the horror of the Battle of Hogwarts. But, by doing so, it has blocked the previous six months before the Battle. I have decided that I must record it, in case I forget again, or need reassurance. This is what happened:_

_The Battle was bloody and horrendous. Many people died, aurors and death-eaters alike. Students and professors- it was horrible. Harry just managed to kill Voldemort, getting himself killed (For a few seconds) in the process. When the smoke cleared, we all went into the Great Hall to see who we had lost. Our family is not as it once was. We lost Fred, Remus and Tonks. George has become silent. He never speaks or laughs or even smiles any more. The Healers say it is a form of coping, but I am worried. Teddy is now living with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. His hair changes like his mother's did, and he has his father's eyes. He misses them. Harry and Ginny are strained- they do love each other but they have both lost too much. I don't know if it's going to work out._

_As for Ron and me, I don't know. Ron told me we kissed during the Battle, but I think it was just relief and adrenaline. Besides, we fight with each other more than anything else. I'm not sure it will work._

When I read through my report, I felt tears spring to my eyes. I couldn't believe that any of my family were dead. I slurped some more coffee and read on.

_I remember yesterday, but no more. I know I have no memory of the Battle._

_I have been called into the Ministry for questioning- they're questioning everyone who fought. I don't know what I'm going to say. Ron and Harry have already been interviewed and they tell me it won't be too bad, but I wonder if I can explain why I can't remember anything. I wonder if they will understand._

I picked up my bowl of cereal and poured the milk from a small jug on the tray and started eating it, still reading my diary.

_When I went in for questioning today, Draco Malfoy was there as well. He told me he was being interrogated. If he gave enough information on death-eaters who escaped, he would get a smaller sentence. He told me his father had been killed by death-eaters as a traitor and his mother had not left her bed in weeks. His eyes were sad and panicked. I was surprised to feel nothing but sympathy for him. Maybe it was because I felt a kinship to him- we had both been in the Battle and both been victims. I told him that I hoped he got a short sentence. I was shocked that I meant it._

_The questioning went for a few hours, but I couldn't give them any information that Ron and Harry had not already. After all, that was all I knew too._

_I was right when I said it wouldn't work out with Ron. He told me that he was not looking for a relationship right now. He's still grieving for his brother. I understand. And I'm relieved._

I frowned when I read that. I thought it would have worked. And I was shocked I had been so nice to Malfoy. That didn't seem like me at all. Then again, apparently I had married him. I kept reading.

_It has been four years since the Battle. The papers say that Draco Malfoy has been freed from Azkaban and has returned home. They say also that his mother committed suicide in Azkaban. I wrote to him today, telling him that whatever he told the ministry, he helped catch at least eight death-eaters. I thanked him for it. It might have been stupid, but I feel as though I owe him a debt._

_Ron and Renee got engaged today. He did that extravagant proposal in front of every one. I'm happy it didn't work out between us. He and Renee are perfect together. I hope it works._

I read through the next couple of years eagerly. The diary didn't seem to have an end. It seemed to grow as I read it. My mouth opened and closed in horror as I read the way I became friends and then more with Draco Malfoy.

_I know I will feel appalled the next time I forget and read this, but I need to remember this: I love Draco Malfoy._

_I have forgotten him so many times but I have remembered him for the past two weeks, and that's all it takes to fall in love with him. His time in Azkaban has made him kind. He's so good with Teddy- he always has time to kick a ball or help him practise flying his broom. He and Ron and Harry get along really well now- he was one of the groom's men at Harry and Ginny's wedding, who finally got everything sorted out when Ginny graduated from Hogwarts. And he's funny too, and incredibly smart. He knows not to interrupt my reading time, and he listens to the same music I do. He can't dance or sing or play badminton, but that doesn't stop him trying. Sometimes I hate him, even when I love him. I'm so happy when I'm with him. I trust him._

My head was exploding. I could feel all my individual brain cells dying. I had never read such gooey ridiculousness in all my life, and I refused to believe it came from my own brain. But everything else had, surely, so how could this be different? But it had to be. I read on.

_Draco proposed to me today. We've had a glorious month together. I said yes. I know I will forget this before the wedding, but I don't care. I love Draco Malfoy, and I'm going to marry him._

_Teddy was so excited when we told him. He wanted to be best man, and little Victoire told me I had to take her with me when I went dress shopping. James Sirius told me I had to be driven down the aisle in a flying monster-truck and Albus Severus hastily agreed. It is strange to think that Teddy is six, and even stranger to think that Victoire and James will be five in the summer or that Albus will be two. When I forget, I don't even know that Victoire or James or Albus exist, and now... I worry about what will happen when I forget and wake up aching all over, with grey hair and wrinkles._

_I wonder if Draco will still love me then._

I had to close the book for a while, not wanting to read further. I didn't want to know that the little baby I had only met once was now ten, or that the babies I had never met were growing up too. I didn't want to know that Ron had gotten over me and married a person I had never heard of. I didn't want to know that I had missed Harry's wedding. I didn't want to know. Taking a deep breath and forcing myself to do so, I read on.

_We've decided that the wedding will be quite soon, because I have wonderful news: I'm going to have a baby._

_I found out today when I noticed morning sickness and other things. When I went to the Healers, they told me I'm two months pregnant. I'm excited, yet slightly (Incredibly) terrified._

I told myself I should have been expecting that, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. So Cassiopeia really was my daughter. I wondered how I long I remembered I was pregnant.

_I woke this morning with a huge belly. I screamed and looked around me, and I saw Draco Malfoy lying in bed next to me. He woke and tried to explain but I was panicking. He had to call Harry and Ron and Ginny to come and calm me down. I read this diary and I think I understand, but it seems fantastical. I'm concerned that when I meet my baby, I won't love it because I will have no memory of_

The missive abruptly stopped and I turned the page quickly to see what happened next.

_Her name is Cassiopeia Nymphadora Jean Malfoy, and she is beautiful. She sleeps like an angel, and her tiny fingers can't even wrap around my pinkie finger. She's so perfect- she even has tiny nails. I don't think I could ever love anything more than I do her. It makes me so sad that I will forget her. I hate myself for it._

The next few pages were filled with stories of my daughter, the one I didn't know. I began to love her from these pages. I smiled as I read of her first's.

Cassie gave her first smile today. She smiled right at me. It was so beautiful I almost cried. Draco hugged us both when she did it, so proud of our little girl.

Cassie laughed today. A proper laugh, not a coo or gurgle, a real laugh. It was the most musical sound I've ever heard. I can't describe how perfect her laugh was. I just can't.

Cassie began crawling today. Normally she just lies on her stomach and tries to pull herself around, but today she got up on her hands and knees and crawled from her bedroom door all the way down the hall. My strong little girl. I'm so proud of her.

Cassie said her first word today. It broke my heart because I won't remember. She said 'Boomstip'. She meant 'Broomstick'. Our little girl is going to be a Quiddich player. Not sure how I feel about that.

Cassie took her first steps today. They were wobbly and hesitant, but she did it. I feel like one of those ridiculous smother mothers. I want to layer the walls with Styrofoam so she won't hurt herself when she falls over, but I know she needs to learn. I just want to keep her safe.

And so it went on. I cried when I figured out that I had forgotten her two hundred and ninety seven times in the past three years, and I cried again when I read about the first day she called me 'Mumma'. I read through her first and second birthdays. I read that Ginny was pregnant again. I read that Ron had a daughter called Rose Molly Weasley, and a son called Hugo Arthur Weasley. I wanted to know them.

Then I read something that shocked the hell out of me.

_I'm pregnant again. Three months. I told Draco today so he knows. He's so happy. He wants another girl. I want a boy, a perfect replica of his daddy._

_I know I will forget before I give birth to him, so I'm writing down his name: Orion Scorpius Kenneth Malfoy. I've already asked Draco if he likes it. He said he does. If it's a girl, he will get to name her, but I know it's a boy._

_Call it mother's intuition._

That was the last entry so that would have been the day before. I stood up and looked in the mirror, rolling up my pyjama top so I could see.

I already had stretch marks on my stomach, from Cassie. What I was really looking at was the small but defined bump. I pivoted on the spot to see it from every angle. There was no denying it.

I was a mother to a girl I didn't know, wife to a man I thought I hated, and I was pregnant with another child, though I didn't even remember that very same child being conceived.

Things were about to get complicated.

* * *

A/N: So, what did you think? Did it make sense? The underlined and bits are what her diary says if it didn't make sense then. Please let me know what you think. I need to know so I can improve.

A/N: Thanks for reading, have fun, say hi, REVIEW!

Love Stormy xoxox


	2. Forgotten Photos

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other characters therein.**

**Hey guys, sorry it's taken so long to post a new chapter. I've tried to make these chapters longer than my normal. I hope they're okay. **

**Please leave a review as they really help me and I think I need more feedback on the emotions that are coming across in this particular fic than my other ones. **

**As always, enjoy, have fun, say hi, REVIEWWW!**

* * *

I stared at the inside of the monumental cupboard. Unable to find anything appropriate to wear, I looked at the cupboard next to it. Thankfully, this one contained several dresses and a few skirts. Reaching in to grab one, I frowned at the silky smooth feel of them all. Some of them must have been made of the finest silk. Blindly picking one, I took it out and pulled it over my head, flicking my hair out from under it. My hair seemed slightly shorter than I remembered; just to the bottom of my shoulder blades instead of my waist. The dress I picked was a frilly light colour, almost pink. I ran my hands over its softness, completely entranced by it.

Squaring my shoulders, I pulled the door open and stepped into the hall.

My bare feet felt cold against the hard wood floor. Paintings lined the walls, all seemingly nice people. Many stopped to say hello, calling me by nicknames and endearments. I gave smiles I didn't really want to give and moved on, nodding as the paintings gave me directions. Soon, I didn't have to follow directions, because I heard childish laughing coming from ahead of me. I followed the sounds and wound up in what appeared to be a gigantic living room.

Cassie was squirming on a bean bag, being tickled by her father- I had to pause when I thought of that word. It seemed disgusting to me. But apparently, every time I forgot, I learned to love him. Maybe I thought I hated him every time. I hoped so. I hoped this wasn't a one off.

"Mumma!" Cassie screamed when she saw me.

Malfoy turned and shifted off the bean bag, and Cassie came running, barrelling towards me with all the enthusiasm of a hyperactive puppy. She jumped up and down on the spot, hands in the air, begging for me to hold her. Instead of doing so, I knelt next to her and hugged her around the waist. She planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek. I kept wary eyes on Malfoy, who was looking at me with pained eyes.

"Mumma, you 'member me! Daddy, Mumma 'members me!" She turned and skipped back to Malfoy, who picked her up easily, supporting her on his hip.

Seeing them close together, it was easy to see the resemblance. She had his pale hair and complexion, his grey blue eyes. Her hair was darker though and her eyes had tiny flecks of brown. I didn't want to think it. I wanted to deny it with every fibre of my being. The problem was, I believed my diary, which meant I had to read between the lines: I had let this man touch me, impregnate me. This man who had called me 'Mudblood' so many times it was criminal, who had been on the side of the death-eaters. This man who just stood there in silence while I was tortured by his aunt in his living room. This man who I hated more than anything in the world.

"Looks like she does, baby girl." Malfoy replied to her joyful cries. He threw her in the air and caught her on the way down, swinging her legs as he planted her back on the floor. She seemed delighted.

"Mumma, you gotta play with me! That way you'll 'member me p'op'ly."

Cassie took my hand and towed me off to a far corner of the room, where she had set up a doll's house. I knelt down with her and watched in amazement as she played out the lives of her dolls. We played together that way for a while, Malfoy looking on in amusement, until Cassie got suddenly serious.

"Mumma?"

"Yeah, Cass?"

"Do you like me?" The question made me look at her sharply. She didn't seem to notice, just went back to moving her dolls around her tiny house.

"What makes you ask that?"

"You always forget me and Daddy, but you never forget Uncle Harry or Uncle Ron, or Grandma Molly or Grandpa Art'ur. Do you like me, Mumma?" Hesitant, I risked a glance at Malfoy.

He was staring at Cassie as though seeing her for the first time. Knowing that he was just as freaked out as I was, I reached out my hands for her. She came to me willingly, fitting herself against my chest as though she belonged there. I guess she did.

"You know I love you, don't you Cassie?" She nodded miserably. "And I like you, of course I do. Sometimes I forget you, but that's not because I don't like you. I forget you because-" I glared at Malfoy over Cassie's head, making sure he got the message. "Some very bad people stole my memory. They did some very bad things and they made me forget." Malfoy's eyebrows lifted in surprise, but then he just shrugged, as if saying 'Fair enough'. Pulling Cassie away from my chest, I looked her right in the eye. "But that doesn't mean I don't like you. I like you a lot, little one." She beamed at me, showing twin dimples, and threw me into a choker hold, her skinny arms winding around my neck like a boa constricter. I hugged her back with the same enthusiasm.

* * *

It was about an hour later that Kitzy came in and said that it was time for Cassie to have a nap. It surprised me, because she seemed to have limitless energy, but she dutifully yawned and rubbed her eyes. I smiled when she gave me a hug, and then frowned when she did the same to Malfoy then left me alone with him.

He smiled as he watched her go, holding Kitzy's hand, bending her legs slightly so she could reach the house-elf's bony fingers. When he turned back to look at me, his eyes were full of fatherly pride. I was still in denial. I still didn't want to believe it. I could see sympathy in his features, but also impatience. I wondered how many times he had thought about leaving- giving up on me. It made me wonder what made him stay each time.

"I've written to Harry and Ron. They're on their way over." I was struck dumb at the use of their real names, without the sense of condescension or hostility I was used to. "They should be here by the time she wakes up."

"I have a question," I worked on keeping my voice level, on not seeming unreasonable. "How do you make me... fall in love with you every time?" I couldn't stomach it. The words tasted vile- wrong- coming out of my mouth. His grin was quick and immediate.

"Killer abs." He replied, very simply. I was not impressed.

"Can you be serious for ten seconds, please?" He turned very stoic. It shocked me.

"You want the truth? I have no idea. I know I don't deserve you, or our daughter, or your family. I don't deserve the friends you've given me, or the life without death and violence that I had before you saved me. I have no idea why you love me, but I know I'm not going to just walk away,"

"But what do you get out of it?" That was the bit I didn't understand. The entire time I'd known him, he'd always been looking for the best, and I knew for a fact that, in his opinion, that wasn't me.

"Have you seen our daughter? She is absolutely and completely perfect. When we get together, we make perfection." He took a step closer to me, and I took a step back. According to the look that flashed across his face, he noticed. "What can I say? I'm for it."

"For what?"

"Perfection," He smiled fondly at me, seemingly not fussed by my shock. "Now, I've got to go do some work. Do you need me for anything?"

"No!" My response was too loud and too quick. It hurt him. I was surprised I noticed. He nodded, his grey eyes softening for a second before he turned and walked out of the living room. I held my head in my hands and breathed out a frustrated sigh.

I had been right when I said it was going to get complicated.

* * *

Harry and Ron came bearing hugs and children. There was an army of them, honestly. A huge herd of screaming rascals. Some were freckled redheads, some were brown eyed and raven haired, a couple were chestnut brunettes and one had deep green eyes under floppy lemon yellow and ice blue hair. I recognised the latter immediately.

Harry bent to kiss my cheek and Ron gave a brief hug before going after one of his kids. I shook my head as I watched him scold that child for doing something that I hadn't even noticed. Cassie came skipping into the room and got smothered by heaps of people vying for her attention. I chuckled when Harry and Ron started play-fighting over her, playing a tug'o'war with her as the rope.

The kids seemed to know something of what was going on, looking at me hesitantly, as though waiting for me to do something. I smiled hopefully. They didn't move. I opened my arms. They swarmed. Harry and Ron looked on with sad smiles as I tried to guess at names from height, but instead opted for the general 'Hey guys!' I didn't want to regret using the wrong name on the wrong child.

"Go and play down the hall, kids. We've gotta talk with Auntie 'Mione." Harry told them, pushing them in the direction of Cassie's room. The words struck a blow. Almost as bad as 'Mumma' did.

"But, Dad, you always have to talk to Auntie 'Mione!" One of the raven haired boys whined. He seemed smaller. I guessed he was Albus.

"That's just 'cause she's way more interesting than the lot of you," Ron joked, shooing them away. They finally filed out, shouting about a game of Quiddich.

When the room was quiet, Harry and Ron both sat down on the couch and laid their arms against the back rest, perfectly synchronised. It was kind of alarming.

"So, what was your theory this time?" Ron asked, cocking a brow.

"Huh?"

"You always have a theory when you don't remember. Imperious Curse, Stockholm Syndrome- you've had quite a few. What was it this time?" I looked down in embarrassment.

"Love spell," I murmured. Both boys laughed, mocking me. "I just don't understand how either of you could let me do this!" I finally cried, sick of their teasing. "I mean, all the time my daughter has to live with the fact that I don't remember her! How could you let me do this?"

"Because, regardless of what you may think now, you and Drake just work," Ron told me. I reeled at the use of the nickname. "And also because, why should you have to live without a life just because your head is broken?"

"Is everything in that diary true? Fred and Tonks and Remus- are they really-"

"Yeah. They really are." Harry spoke before I could say the word. I felt a tightening in my chest and I wanted to scream.

"I'm so sorry, Ron." We were silent for a while, and then I heard footprints.

"Hey, four-eyes." Malfoy said. I started to turn.

"Hey, blondie." Harry replied, his voice oddly cheerful

"Hey, weasel."

"Hey, ferret." Ron seemed fine with the insults too. This was a very weird day.

"They're endearments, Hermione." Malfoy informed me, coming over to sit on the right armrest of my chair. "Not insults."

"Manly endearments," Ron hastened to add, ignoring the looks he got from Harry and Malfoy. It was so strange, having them in the same room and not shouting at each other. I took a breath, and decided to jump right in.

"So," I started. "Are there any photos I could look at?"

* * *

Later on, I sat with a huge book in my lap in front of a roaring fire. Malfoy sat next to me, every so often pointing at something in the book. Harry and Ron and the kids had left a half hour before, but I was still trawling through the photo albums, Cassie playing with her blocks in front of my knees.

"And that's you at Victoire's first day home," Malfoy said, pointing at a scene in a lounge room, people bustling around a familiar woman and a bundle of blankets. "And that was her when she woke up," The baby he pointed at was beautiful, pale blue eyes and downy pale hair on the top of her tiny head, staring inquisitively at me from the photo. "That was you going back to Hogwarts for the last year," I frowned at that, crinkling my brows. "And that's you the next week coming back," I chuckled, surprised that I had remembered that long. My photo self waved at me, and I fought the urge to wave back. When Malfoy stopped talking, I turned to look at him. He was staring at me, his grey eyes stormy and intense. I flinched back, nervous. "Sorry. I just haven't heard you laugh today. Sorry. Where was I? Oh, and this one is one of my favourites," He pointed at a picture of me wrestling with a garden-gnome. "First time you tried de-gnoming." I blushed as he laughed.

I flicked through years of photos, smiling at the memories I wasn't able to have. Then it got serious.

"And this is the first time you and I played mini-golf, first time we played badminton, first picnic we went on, first milkshakes, first..."

The list went on, and I nearly cracked, wanting to scream that it wasn't me. It couldn't be me. I would never do any of this with him.

"First date," He paused, smiling fondly at the photo. "First kiss," My eyes widened as I looked at the two in the photo, obviously not needing oxygen. His voice turned sad, melancholy. "First time I told you I love you. First time you said the same back. First time Ron and Harry had a decent conversation with me." There were so many firsts. I wanted to rip up all the photos and tell him point blank that they were fake. They weren't me. I would not do that. How could he think I could love him? But the look on his face stopped me. There was an age of sadness beneath the memories, like a tiny stain on a favourite dress.

"This was when I proposed to you," He was on his knee on a stone bridge, strangers all around clapping. Someone had been holding the camera on land, recording the moment. Malfoy was smiling, beaming at me, and my hands were over my mouth. As I watched, I dropped my hands and nodded. He stood up and kissed me, then the scene started again. "And this was our wedding day."

Malfoy and I stood on the top of a hill, him in a tuxedo, black shirt and black tie and me in the perfect wedding dress. A tight fitting bodice with lace and pearls, and a skirt the flowed around me like water. My veil had been long and lovely, and my _shoes_\- Merlin, they were heavenly. Malfoy had me in his arms, and I was looking up at him like I adored him. My hands were on his chest and I was pressed close against him. Wind whipped around us, moving my veil and hair about, my dress shivering in beautiful waves, birds flying above us, but I didn't take my eyes off him, and his attention never wavered from me, the picture seemed to be an eternal homage to the perfect wedding. I looked up at him. He was smiling, but it was marred with sorrow. A sorrow so terrible I couldn't even comprehend.

"You forgot me the next morning," His eyes turned misty, water lining his lower eyelids. He wiped the back of his hand under his nose and I fought the urge to place a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "From that day, we learned that you must always have pyjamas on when you wake up." He shook his head and got back to business. "This was the day you moved in, and this was our first candlelit dinner here. You were worried the the house would catch fire, if I remember correctly." I watched a few months go by, my stomach getting increasingly larger. Then it wasn't large at all, and I was holding Cassie in my arms, sitting in this chair. "This was Cass's first day home,"

"I wanna see!" Cassie cried, jumping into Malfoy's lap. She giggled when she saw how small she was. I couldn't make sense of it. I couldn't imagine her being that tiny. "I got bigger, Daddy," She said, pointing at herself in the picture.

"Yep, you sure did, bubba. Still my little girl, though." It was hard to watch Malfoy hold Cassie. It was hard to see that he loved her so much. It made me want to like him.

I watched her first and second birthday, and all the days in between. It was nice to see my life played out so I could visualise it.

I just wanted to remember it.

* * *

Dinner was served in a massive dining room. The table, by comparison, was tiny, although not to Cassie, who had to sit on two encyclopaedias and a copy of 'Hogwarts: A History' in order to see over the tabletop. She was happily enjoying her chicken parmigiana which Malfoy had just cut up for her, along with beans, potatoes and a warm tomato salad. Malfoy seemed to have the same thing, except more of it, and I had the same as well. Except, I didn't have any chicken.

"Um," I stuttered. Malfoy's blonde head snapped up to look at me. It was the first time I had spoken since I had finished looking at the photo albums. "I just wondered... um... where's my chicken?" Malfoy smiled, his flint grey eyes twinkling.

"You're a vegetarian, remember?" Now he said it, I did remember reading that. It was strange to think that I had made such a big decision and yet couldn't even remember it.

"Oh. Good for me." The last word trailed off, almost like a question.

Malfoy started laughing, then Cassiopeia joined in as little kids do when adults start laughing- to join in on the fun and look like a big kid- while I shook my head. After a while, I couldn't help joining in as well. Laughter is contagious. It shocked me when I realised I liked his laughter. It seemed musical to me, soothing. It made me relax a little, realise this was easy.

After we all settled down, Malfoy asked Kitzy if she could get me some chicken, and she rushed off, evidently used to making spare. I tucked in when my plate was resettled in front of me and was surprised when Malfoy suddenly started talking.

"So do you remember we have that thing tonight?" My head spun, and I tried to remember something from my diary.

"Um," Was my brilliant reply.

"The Hero's Banquet at the Ministry..."

"You're one of the Heroes?"

"No... the only recognised heroes are the ones who fought and gave their lives in the War. The rest are just soldiers. People are grateful to them, but the ones who died gave the ultimate gift." I frowned and started to ask more questions, but Cassie interrupted.

"I wanna come! Teddy and Vicky and Jamie and Booboo always get to go." She whined from her end of the table.

"That's because they're not three," Malfoy explained exasperatedly. "And also because they don't have a seven thirty bedtime."

"But I want to stay up later! Mumma, Daddy's being mean!" The father in question smirked, reminding me very much of our school days together.

He didn't say a word and waited for me to reply. I didn't want to. I wasn't going to admit that he was right, but I couldn't argue with him. What he said was true, she did have a bedtime, but at the same time, she was- ugh, she was too adorable to refuse. My mind was going wild, trying to come up with a solution to what I believed was a real problem.

"You know you have a bedtime, Cassie." Her bottom lip turned down and she started to cry.

"But I don't want to-"

"Cassiopeia Nymphadora Jean Malfoy, you stop that noise right now or you won't get dessert!" Malfoy's tone was demanding and stern, but not smug or nasty or anything else I associated with him. It was not arrogant or disdainful. It sounded like he knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it. His voice was just assertive. Cassie's golden head dropped in remorse and her voice shook as she apologised.

"I'm sorry, Daddy," She whimpered.

"I know, darling girl. You will get to go to one of these things eventually; just not tonight." After one, fond smile at his daughter, Malfoy turned to me and gave a questioning glance. "So what do you think, 'Mione? Shall we go tonight or blow it off?"

I didn't reply for a few minutes, unnerved by his easy use of the nickname. It seemed so natural coming from his lips. I didn't want to think about the hundreds of times he'd called me that and other names that were so much more personal. Closing my eyes, I shook my head and gave my answer.

"I guess we can go. What time will it be?" Malfoy gave me a look that was hard to figure out. It was almost proud.

"We have another hour or so." I blinked a few times and then started to panic. He noticed. "Kitzy can help you get ready, if you'd like. You picked out what you were going to wear yesterday," The blonde smiled at me quite tenderly. "You're organised that way."

Yeah, that did kind of sound like me. Taking a deep breath, I smiled and tried to calm my racing heart, which had picked up speed almost as soon as this topic had come up.

* * *

I stared at myself in the full length mirror in absolute amazement. The last time I had been this elegant was at the Yule Ball in fourth year. Well, the last time I could remember anyway. Kitzy was next to me, smiling at my reflection in the mirror, obviously pleased with her work. I didn't want to smile. I just wanted to stare.

My dress was a light, forget-me-not blue and it seemed to shimmer around me. It was ankle length and it had sort of a wavy feel about it. If I spun a little, it flowed around my ankles in a fairy circle. Kitzy had done marvels with my hair, using her elf magic to pin it in an elegant, simple updo that was both fabulous and slightly gravity defying. My face was highlighted and bronzed in all the right places, and my eyes seemed to pop, demanding attention.

"You look lovely, Miss." Kitzy informed me, not sounding surprised in the least. "Just right."

"Thank you, Kitzy." The almost-stranger smiled in the mirror and the little house-elf nodded.

"Will that be all, Miss?"

"Yes, Kitzy, thanks."

"Well, then, I'll be knocking off now, Miss. You have fun tonight." She patted my hand and walked out, leaving me to greet Malfoy like this on my own.

Steeling myself, I turned and walked out the master bedroom and down the hall, asking the paintings where Malfoy was. When I found him, he was drawing with Cassie, using what looked like really quite excellent crayons and canvas. I guessed that with his money, he could afford to waste such good mediums. Or _we_ could.

It was still so strange to think of Malfoy and me as an 'us' or 'we' entity.

When he heard me come into the room, he looked up and smiled. The look froze on his face as he got a look at me and I hastily smoothed my hands over the fabric of my dress.

"What? Is something wrong?" It took a while for him to answer.

"No," He replied finally, like it was obvious. He smiled, one of those odd, nice smiles I had only seen throughout today a few times. He shrugged. "You're perfect. Cassie, how good does Mummy look?" It was then that my daughter looked at me, and her eyes sparkled and he mouth creased into a childish grin.

"Mumma looks like a princess. A Rathenclop princess. Mumma, you look like Rowena Rathenclop." I smiled softly at the little girl and walked over. I picked her up and supported her on my hip. I kissed her downy hair.

"Thank you, Cassie." I bent down and placed her back on the ground. She skipped over to Malfoy.

"I think it's bedtime for you, missy-moo." He told her.

"No it's not." She replied, unconvincingly.

"You have to go to bed, Cass."

"No, I don't." Malfoy looked up at me and gave me a mockingly traumatised face. I frowned at him.

"Well, I guess there's nothing for it. We'll have to sell her." Cassie gasped and I bit back a grin. "Yes, we'll have to sell her to the pixies. They'll lock her up and tie her up and only feed her cucumber and Brussels' sprouts, but if she's not going to go to bed, that's the only thing we can do."

"No, no, no! Daddy, no!" She turned away and started running. "See Daddy, I'm gon bed. Don't sell me, Daddy." Malfoy smiled after her and shook his head.

"Works every time." He gloated.

"Do you do that a lot?" I asked him, staring after our cute girl in Mickey Mouse pyjamas.

"_We_ do that a lot." He corrected.

I frowned, still not used to the 'we' principle. Malfoy gave a sad smile and waved his hand in the direction Cassie had toddled off to.

"Why don't you go say goodnight while I go get dressed and then I'll say goodnight and we can go?" I gave a slightly confused smile. "Down the hall, turn right, third on the left." He left to let me find my way and went in the direction of the master bedroom.

I followed his directions and found Cassie's room. I was helped along, though, by the sign that informed me that it was 'Cassie's Room'- it had a cute, pink butterfly flittering around the sign as well. When I stopped to admire it, it fluttered it's right wing as though it was waving at me. I blinked a few times before entering Cass's room.

It was a pink and purple paradise. Her walls were painted lavender, her roof a creamy pink. Her bed covers were a hot, bubblegum pink, decorated with little elephants in varying shades of light purple. There was a deep, almost blue, purple fairy net draped over the sides of her bed. Over by the window at the far corner sat the doll house she had been playing with earlier today. I wondered who had moved it.

Cassie was hovering almost protectively over a cot, whispering excitedly to her toys inside. When I went to kneel next to her, I saw that there were three miniature dolls and a stuffed cat, all staring at her as if real. She was telling them not to worry, that the monsters wouldn't come back- Daddy had taken care of them. She whispered goodnight and kissed them all on the forehead. Then she toddled into bed, taking my hand and pulling me along with her.

I pulled back her covers and watched her slide in, cuddling her teddy bear close. Her lovely grey eyes looked at me with what I could only describe as childish love. I wanted to stay here and savour that look. Despite the fact that I didn't think I knew her, I loved this little girl already. It felt as though my heart would break every time I thought of the fact that I might not remember her tomorrow. It seemed to be weighing on her mind too.

"Mumma?"

"Yes, Cassie?" I brushed her hair back from her forehead gently and smiled.

"Will you 'member me tonowwow?"

"I don't know, bubba." I replied sadly- I so wanted to give her reassurance, to let her believe I would never forget her.

"Will you try to?" Her voice was small and scared.

"Of course, I will. You know I will." She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. She reached out with her skinny arms to hug me around the neck. I didn't want to let go.

"Goodnight, Mumma." I kissed her forehead and left the room.

Malfoy was coming down the hall, looking sickeningly dashing in a black tuxedo, white shirt and tie. His hair was combed but not slicked back the way I remembered it. I thought he looked better this way, then cursed myself for thinking he looked good at all.

"I'll just say goodnight, then we'll go."

I heard him talking with Cassie but didn't want to interfere. He came out after a small while and put his arm out for me to side apparate with him. Before I took his arm, he asked me a favour.

"Don't call me Malfoy tonight. Can you just try to call me Draco?"

It wasn't just pleading in his eyes: there was fear and doubt as well. Instead of replying, I just nodded. He smiled, and we zipped off to the gala.

**A/N: So what did you think? Too angsty? Not angsty enough? Was Draco a believable Draco? I'm trying to make him nicer but still with a sort of sarcastic sense of humour, if that makes sense. Either way, let me know. **

**Love Stormy. xoxox**


	3. Goodbyes at the Gala

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the magical universe therein. Unfortunately**

**Okay, so in this chapter, I'm going for a big emotional reaction. Let me know if that happens. **

**Have fun, say hi, REVIEWW!**

* * *

The first thing I noticed about the gala was the noise. It was everywhere. A swarming mass of noise and complete chaos. I could hear the buzzing and clicking of the journalists and photographers, the almost screaming sounds of people talking and shouting over the rest of the noise. People were shouting for other peoples' attention, above everything else, the sounds of music coming from inside a building.

The next thing I noticed was the complex itself. It was clear that we were in Diagon Alley, but this seemed an entirely new building- a building that seemed too small for such a decadent occasion. There was a set of stairs leading up to the entrance, where pale orange light beckoned. On either side of the green felt carpet, a swarm of buzzing, shouting, jostling journalists jockeyed for the perfect position to catch photos and quotes. Glamorous people walked across the carpet and up the stairs, some holding hands of others, but all were smiling, all were dressed to the nines, and most were people I recognised from Hogwarts.

I froze as I stared, not wanting to go over there, and I felt Malf- _Draco's_ hand on my arm turn reassuring. I looked up at him, and he smiled down at me, his grey eyes both tender and sympathetic.

"Don't mind them, Hermione. Just smile and ignore them and, above all, do what you do best,"

"Which is what?" At that, his smile turned into a grin.

"Look absolutely and completely gorgeous." I didn't say anything in reply, just too shocked.

He took my hand and dragged me forwards, smiling at the cameras as we slowed once we hit the carpet. The flashes were blinding as we moved forward at an agonisingly slow pace. I heard people screaming my name, but then I noticed Draco's voice in my ear, urging me to ignore them. At some point, his hand found its way around my waist, and for some reason, it didn't feel disgusting or slimy or any other word I associated with him. It just felt surprisingly natural.

When we finally made our way through the swarm and into the building, it was obvious it had one of those 'bigger on the inside' charms as the interior roughly resembled a mansion. Along the walls, long velvet curtains swung in the breeze made by so many bodies moving co-dependently. A sea of colour took up the rest of the space, men in black and grey and white suits, and women in lovely gowns and dresses. There were even some children there, looking grumpy in the evening wear and wanting to play. Trays of drinks and nibbles floated around in patterns, never hitting anybody or spilling anything.

Stunned, I looked over at Draco, who was looking around, seemingly searching for somebody. He smiled when he found them.

"Oy! Zabini!" Someone in the throng turned and I recognised him immediately as Blaise Zabini, one of the hated Slytherins from Hogwarts days.

He looked, although I didn't want to admit it, handsome, in a black pinstripe suit and tie. He seemed to have grown into his height, massive shoulders under lovely black hair and coffee coloured skin. He turned back to the people he was talking to and excused himself, before taking the hand of the woman next to him and walking over.

The blonde woman who walked with him was very beautiful, very familiar and very pregnant. Luna Lovegood smiled as she and Blaise walked over to us, looking gorgeous in her silver gown, which made her eyes demand attention. Her hair was wild behind her, like I remembered from school, and her smile was dreamy and preoccupied, but she was absolutely glowing- there was no other word for it. For the first time since I arrived at this gala, my smile was genuine.

"Luna!" I cried, rushing to throw my arms around her. She responded patiently, but not exactly enthusiastically. She just wrapped her arms around my shoulders, bending at the waist around her prominently pregnant belly and patted my back. I ignored her distance and hugged her for all I was worth, seeking the comfort Luna always seemed willing to give. She waited me out mostly, but she finally pulled away. I acquiesced reluctantly.

"Hello, Hermione." Her hands came to rest protectively over her stomach, and I finally looked at Luna properly. The years had given her a few lines around her eyes and mouth, and she seemed slightly tired, faint circles rested under her eyes.

"How are you, Luna? What are you doing now?" I heard Draco and Blaise conversing but I wasn't paying attention.

"I edit the Quibbler, of course. It's doing very well now, thanks to Harry. And you of course, and Ron. I've got Lee Jordan doing a sports section too, which seems to be doing very well. I've also got Dennis Creevey doing a Muggle Studies section, explaining all kinds of Muggle contraptions. Did you know that they've created a box that makes pictures and sounds come to life, just like our photos? It's quite extraordinary. And all without magic." I grinned at her dreamy, stunned expression and wanted to hug her again. "And, of course, I've got this one on the way, keeping me up to all times of the night." She stroked her belly tenderly and I frowned at the fondness in her tone. Draco, however, seemed interested.

"How far along are you, Luna?" He asked, and I reeled at the use of her non-insulting first name by him. She didn't seem to notice, smiling like an idiot as she looked down at her belly. Blaise grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, placing his other hand on top of Luna's on her bulging stomach. She smiled up at him as though he was her whole world and I wanted to be sick.

"We've only got a few more weeks to go," Blaise informed, placing a soft kiss on the top of Luna's head. "She's due on the fourteenth next month."

"It'll be a boy, Blaise. I told you it would be a boy." She argued, burrowing her face into his chest. He laughed, a happy, contented sound.

"Alright Luna. Whatever you want." His entire face was a mask of adoration for the woman he held in his arms, and she seemed perfectly comfortable there.

When I looked at Draco, he was smiling softly, not bothered by the sickening waves of love emanating from the couple's general direction. I shook my head and looked down to the floor, feeling dizzy. I couldn't get the pictures out of my head- pictures of Draco and me, Cassie and me, the Weasley's and Harry and me. My life that I couldn't remember, that had been stolen from me. And here I was, watching my friends move along with their lives without me. Falling in love, having families, making friends with the people we hated. I couldn't think straight, my mind was spinning.

But I couldn't get it out of my head that I was doing it too. I had a child with Draco Malfoy, and I was creating another one. Merlin, I'd married the bastard, and my name was now Hermione Malfoy. How could I have ever thought that was a good idea? How could I do that?

The room was spinning, I was so dizzy. I looked up at the three people around me and excused myself, ignoring their concerned expressions, before turning and escaping into the crowd. I kept walking, not turning when I heard Draco call my name, or when I bumped into several people blindly, just wanting to get out of there.

At some point, I bumped into someone head on, and I tipped my head up to apologise. It was then I was looking at George Weasley. His eyes were puzzled but amused, though not as happy as they used to be. Not thinking, I threw my arms around his shoulders and clung to him, my breath heaving. He chuckled before patting my back awkwardly.

"Alrighty then, good to see you too, 'Mione love." George said, laughter in his voice.

"George, I'm sorry." I replied, feeling not just devastated, but guilty. "I'm so, so sorry." The hand on my back halted for a second, and then he pulled me away from him. He frowned at my teary expression, but then he figured it out.

"Ah. I see. This is all new for you, huh? It's alright, love." He pulled me back into his arms and didn't let me go, just held on while I figured out what was wrong.

It was then I realised; I was grieving. Everything was gone, everything was new and people were dead. People I loved, my family, friends, and I hadn't had time to grieve them yet. They were dead, and I was alive, and I couldn't remember feeling so empty. I wanted to cry, wanted to let them go, but instead, my eyes dried up, stubbornly refusing to let me relieve that raw, hollow feeling.

"Hermione?" I heard a voice behind me call. Taking a breath, I stepped away from George and looked over at Draco who was walking over, looking both sympathetic and slightly amused. "I really shouldn't be too pleased about you holding my wife, George."

"Then you shouldn't have let her go." George replied, winking at me. "Besides, I'm spoken for."

"Ah, of course. Where is the future Mrs. Weasley?"

"Not feeling well. She says 'bite me', but I think she's joking. Besides, all biting privileges concerning her are exclusive to me." George and Draco shared a chuckle and I stared in grudging amusement. "It was really good to see you, Hermione, but I have to go talk to someone. I'll catch you later, yeah?" He swooped in quickly and placed a kiss on my cheek. "Hang in there, love." And he was gone, lost in the crowd somewhere.

I breathed a sigh and turned to Draco. He was giving me an odd look. Finally he grinned and reached for a tray of nibbles coming our way and grabbed a few things and a napkin. He handed me what look like a quiche and a sandwich filled with some sort of greenish substance. He had a mini sausage roll and a party pie. Taking a bite of the sausage roll, he winked at me and spoke through is food.

"Not a bad haul for a snatch and grab," He told me, but then he was silent.

His grey eyes seemed to be puzzled and I took a bite of the sandwich to distract myself. It was cool and refreshing, tasting of mint and cucumber. The silence continued and I finished off the quiche as well, which was cheesy and salty. Draco remained mute, stubbornly refusing to say anything to fill the hush. Finally, he cocked his head to the left and raised his finely arched eyebrows, daring me to speak first. Rolling my eyes, I sighed.

"Fine!" I groaned. "I'm sorry I took off. It's just- everything is so different. Everyone's grown up and changed and I'm left behind on my own. I didn't think it would be this hard." I didn't know what had gotten into me, telling him all this.

Draco didn't say anything, and really, I didn't want him to. After a while, he took my hand and tugged me after him. I didn't protest, just too tired and upset to do so. It wouldn't have done any good anyway. He kept pulling me and I finally caught up with him, so he wasn't dragging me along. We walked through the crowd, ignoring the looks of the people we passed. My mind kind of switched off as we kept walking, and I didn't watch what was happening, past the point of caring.

Finally, we made our way into a lavish banquet hall, tables and chairs lining most of the room, with a big podium up at one end. Behind the podium was a huge stone, dozens of names carved into it. I stared at the names, too many too count. I couldn't stop the tears then, now that I was trying to stop them, not wanting to show weakness in front of this man.

"I didn't bring you here to make you upset like this," Draco said as he watched me cry. "I brought you here to show you that there are sixty or so children there who were never able to grow up. They are the ones whose lives were stolen from them. They never even got memories. They got nothing. They're just gone." Apparently done with the insensitivity, he gave a gentle smile and took my hand, squeezing it gently. "Now, I know it's new to you. I know that some of it is hormones from, you know- your emotions running off with you. But to all those people out there, it's been a decade. Of course they've grown up. They've gone and finished school, got jobs and fallen in love. They've started families. I know that it must be confronting, but that's the world now. Inter-house unity. Isn't that what you wanted?" He was making sense. I wanted to punch him, like I had in third year.

The wonderful memory made me smile, and he grinned as though he knew what I was thinking. He wagged his eyebrows at me and turned us around, going back to the mob. I decided to look for the people I knew, wanting to know what else I had missed. It took a while for me to find anyone, but when I did, I was amazed. People had grown up, grown into themselves.

Seamus Finnigan had gained about a million pounds worth of muscle and beard. Dean Thomas had gotten engaged to a Ravenclaw I had never met. Parvati Patil was learning how to fly rescue helicopters and had a husband and three kids at home. Padma Patil was studying to be a healer. Cho Cheng was in a steady relationship with Cormac McClaggen. Dennis Creevy was happy in his job at the Quibbler. Neville Longbottom was the herbology teacher at Hogwarts and had his own line of skincare products.

I went over the results in my head, making sure I kept them in simple, stiff statements. They seemed easier to process that way. Later on, when I had the time to completely freak out in relative privacy I would take all my facts and look them over, dissect and analyse everything. For now, I would just file the facts away and deal with them later. Finally, after much searching and confusingly frustrating conversations, I found Harry and Ginny.

Ginny was pregnant- very pregnant. She wore a pale yellow dress that tried not to bring attention to it, but it was as obvious as her flaming hair. James and Teddy were running around the couple's feet, laughing as they chased each other and Harry was scolding them half-heartedly. He smiled when he saw me and beckoned me over. The boys, having seen me, came over to give me hugs.

"How are you doing, 'Mione?" Ginny asked, smiling at me with her sons. It took a while for me to answer her. It was strange seeing her like this- not only a mother but aged. There were lines around her mouth, her eyes. She looked tired, but she was smiling, and still the Ginny I knew and remembered, her youth still there behind the lines that were new to me.

"I'm alright. It's... odd, seeing everybody... you know... outside school." I tried to turn into a joke, and she noticed my attempt, giving me an approving smile. Harry was too busy convincing the other kids to quiet down. The way he handled them was almost funny- exasperated and just the tiniest bit amused.

I watched him interact with his kids, the way he was so patient, looking at them with proud eyes. It reminded me of Draco, and the way he looked at Cassie. The way he talked to her, gently and slowly, the way he held her close to him protectively, as though she was the most fragile thing in the universe. It made me want to cry, thinking about her and him together- something I should be a part of, but could never be. Not like this- not while I couldn't remember.

After a brief, stunted conversation, I decided to continue wandering, not exactly wanting to hang around with the happy family that, according to my brain that didn't work, shouldn't exist, so instead I hovered around, saying hello to the people who said hello to me. My mind sort of shut off for a while, so I was completely surprised to feel a hand wrap around my wrist, and my body yanked to the left. I looked up in indignation, into the pug face of Pansy Parkinson.

I didn't say anything as she stared at me, her eyes only slightly hostile. "Granger," She began. "Have you talked with Ron recently?"

"What?" I replied, not expecting that at all.

"Don't play coy with me, Granger. I want to know if Ronnie has said anything about me,"

"Ron? Why would he say anything about you? And why did you call him 'Ronnie'?" Her face turned disgusted, looking at me with the same loathing I remembered from school.

"You're so childish, Granger. Move on from your stupid psychotic idiocy and start being useful for a change!" I wanted to slap her. It was so tempting, I had to fold my hands together behind my back. It was then I felt a hand wrap around my waist. I didn't even have to turn to know it was Draco.

"Now Pansy," He said, and his voice was amused, but it had a spark of anger in it. "Hermione's last name is Malfoy, you know that. Don't be petty."

"Drakie, darling," Now Parkinson's tone was simpering, annoying instead of aggravating. "I was merely asking your wife a question."

"It's over, Pans. Let it go." I had no idea what was going on now.

"It was just a fight," She argued. "A small fight over nothing. He overreacted and-"

"You cheated on him, Pans. With Theodore Nott." I wanted to laugh, knowing that they couldn't actually be talking about what I thought they were talking about. "And he's married. With kids. He's happy, and he's happy without you. Do yourself a favour and get over him." He spoke emphatically, like he was genuinely concerned for her, and for Ron.

Her emotions made another sudden change, and she instantly looked hostile again. "He only married that whore to make me jealous, but his children can come along when he grows up and comes back to me. I don't blame them for having _her_ as their mother. He still loves me. He knows that Theodore was just a distraction. I was stressed out- I needed something new, and he couldn't give it to me."

"Pansy, you need to get over it. It's never going to happen. He loves Renee, and he loves his kids, and he's not going to just leave."

"He will! He will, he will, he will! Ron loves _me_! He _loves_ me!" All of a sudden, she was hysterical.

"Pansy-"

"No! You're wrong. He loves me, I know he does. You can't tell me differently, Draco. He loves me." With that, she turned and walked away, her hips sashaying like I remembered. It was silent for a while, me going over everything in my head.

"Well," I said, breaking the silence between us. "That was interesting." Draco laughed, and I felt his laugher vibrating through my shoulders.

"Understatement of the year."

"What was that about?"

"She and Ron dated a few years ago. It ended badly, but Pansy's been stuck on it ever since." I frowned and turned towards him.

"That's not in my diary," I informed him, feeling confused. That was one of the things that should have been in there, surely. With details.

"If I remember correctly, you stubbornly refused to acknowledge Ron's existence while they were going out. You were so indignant about it." I blinked a few times.

"Yeah, that sounds like me," Draco laughed, but was interrupted by an announcement for everyone to enter the banquet hall for the Remembrance Ceremony.

Draco offered me his arm and I took it without thinking, walking with him into the banquet hall he had shown me before. We sat down with Harry and Ginny and their kids, George, Bill and Fleur with little silver Victoire, Ron and a lady I hadn't met but knew instinctively must have been his wife, Renee, and their daughter as well. Rose Molly, who everyone called Booboo for reasons I couldn't remember, was about a year younger than Albus. She was a tiny replica of her mother, who sat next to Ron and smiled at me. Renee was small and plump, with lovely chestnut hair and freckles over her nose and cheekbones. She wore a light green dress that complimented her emerald eyes and a dainty silver necklace. It took me a second to figure out it was the emblem for the Deathly Hallows.

Draco quickly made introductions and everyone at the table shared a small, secret smile, apart from the children who looked bored and tired. Teddy and Victoire, though next to each other, were sitting as far apart from each other as they could, sending each other dirty looks, James was yawning about every three seconds and Booboo was over-tired and hyper, chatting excitedly with anyone who would listen. It was funny watching Ron with her. He looked somewhere else entirely, but he never took his eyes off his little girl, nodding every few seconds. I wondered briefly what it would have been like if it had worked between us, and if I didn't forget my own children all the time. I wondered how many kids we'd have, what they'd look like, what we would have named them.

I shook my head to dispel my pondering, and caught Draco's pained expression, as though he knew what I was thinking. For a second, I wondered if he knew about Occlumency, but dismissed the thought completely. Even if I didn't think I liked him, I knew this man who sat next to me right now wouldn't do that to me. For some reason, I knew instinctively that I could trust him. The thought was both strangely reassuring but slightly disturbing.

We waited for the ceremony to begin, something that everyone else on the table seemed to be used to. George, looking more serious than I had ever seen him, was deep in conversation with Bill, Fleur was giving seemingly unwelcome advice about Ginny's pregnancy, something she was making clear she had done before, Harry and Ron were conversing about Quiddich, reminding me of Hogwarts' days and Draco was teaching Teddy some sort of complicated handshake, Victoire, James and Booboo were having hurried talks from opposite sides of the table, which left me and Renee.

"So Renee," I began, trying to ignore the stab in my gut that told me this was going to be awkward. "My diary tells me you're studying to be a chef?" And there was no more awkwardness.

Renee was easy to talk to and she talked easily. She was patient enough to fill in the blanks when she spoke of something I couldn't remember reading and she was funny enough to keep me interested. She called Ron her 'very own culinary guinea-pig', which he seemed to find no objections to, and she spoke of the Weasley's and extended family thereof, including Harry and Fleur and Draco and me, with the utmost fondness, even going so far as to calling the brothers, red headed, raven-haired and blonde alike 'her boys'. Ginny took offence to that, so she quickly fixed it by calling them instead 'our boys'.

The conversation was cut short when a woman in a very lovely scarlet dress stood at the podium and put her wand by her throat.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the tenth commemoration of the end of the Second Wizards' War." There was a moment of heavy silence, but then she continued. "It has been ten years since Voldemort was defeated," I was stunned at the casual use of the dark wizard's name, but no one else seemed to notice. "But still we come here. We come here to remember those that were lost. The brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. We come here to thank them for their sacrifice, to thank them for the lives that they gave us in return for theirs. We come here to remind ourselves how precious life is, and to celebrate the life we have been gifted with." The woman stopped talking and took a step back.

I took a look around the table. Draco was squeezing Teddy's hand. The little boy had tears in his eyes. George's face was stony and still, but his eyes showed a pain too deep for me to conceive while little Victoire curled into his side, looking tiny and helpless. Ginny and Harry were both holding onto James' hands, looking into each other's eyes. Bill and Fleur were holding hands. Ron was murmuring into Booboo's ear and Renee placed a hand on my shoulder, looking shattered.

I tried to remember who she had lost and gasped when I did. Renee had lost the same thing as George- Renee had lost her twin sister. But she had also lost her parents, her baby brother- even her dog. The death-eaters had killed every living thing they could find in the house, but not before they had tortured her entire family right in front of her. They had been in the midst of torturing Renee herself into insanity before the Aurors had finally turned up, but by that point, everyone she loved was already dead.

She had been moved to a friend of the family's house, had graduated from Hogwarts and was now working to further her career in cooking, the only passion she had not shared with her twin.

I didn't know how she could remain so strong after the hell she had been through. I didn't even understand how she could get out of bed in the morning. I couldn't imagine possibly going through such deep rooted pain on a daily basis. I admired her more than I ever had anyone before.

Hearing my shocked gasp, Renee looked up at me. Her eyes showed such hurt and loss in was hard to look at, but then she shocked me by quickly shutting her eyes and, after opening them again, smiling right at me, like she was comforting me. I decided immediately that I liked Renee and that Ron had made an excellent choice. In fact, I decided, if he ever hurt her, I would kill him.

It took me a while to notice that the woman at the podium was once again talking. Instead of speeches, she was reading the names on the stone. As each name was called, more wands were raised in the air, the tips of them glowing white.

"Michael Cay. Fay Cede. Colin Creevey." I looked around the room and spotted Dennis Creevey raising his hand, his wand help aloft. "Kiara Dance. Bella Grimshaw." And so it went on.

As each name was said, more wands were raised, until almost everyone had their wands up. Everyone was holding hands or comforting a person near them in some way. I couldn't look most of them in the eye. I couldn't even remember such pain, and all of a sudden, I felt acutely ashamed of my brain dysfunction. Harry had already raised his wand, as had Fleur.

"Vanessa Hudgins." I felt Renee next to me raise her wand, and I felt her hand shake on my shoulder. "Katherine Hudgins. Graham Hudgins. Xander Hudgins. Frank Hudgins. Bree Hudgins." She seemed to be focusing on breathing, as though she was keeping her tears in by sheer will alone. I couldn't even imagine how hard it was. The names continued being called out. Even the kids knew to be quiet now, waiting patiently for this to finish. "Remus Lupin. Nymphadora Lupin-Tonks." My head pivoted quickly to look over at Teddy.

He was staring blankly ahead, tears glistening in his eyes. Draco wrapped an arm around his shoulder and raised his own wand, the tip shining white. I remembered that Tonks had been his cousin, so I understood why he raised his wand at her name, then I realised that Teddy was technically blood related to Draco, and I figured out that that was the reason Teddy and Draco seemed so close.

"Fred Weasley." The name rang like a bell in my head and I reached for my wand and raised it, as every other adult at our table did the same thing.

I didn't even want to look at George, but when I did, he was grinning and was reaching into his pocket. He gave me a signal for silence and winked at me, placing the object he found in his pocket on the table. I wondered what he was doing, but no one else appeared to notice.

The woman at the podium finished calling out the names and began speaking again, talking about sacrifice and loyalty, loss and grief and triumph. I wanted to scream at her to shut up, this wasn't helping, this was not something to feel triumphant or victorious about. This loss of precious life was stupid and illogical and pointless. There was a pounding in my head like a drum, and I knew I had started to hyperventilate. Renee's hand was firm and sure on my shoulder, never wavering.

Because I was focusing so much on my own inner turmoil, I almost didn't notice George take his gadget off the table and chuck it quickly in the air. There was a second of silence, before suddenly, the room exploded into sparks of light, red and green and yellow and blue, and then what looked like ghosts began to appear, looking amused. I spotted some people I thought I recognised, and they shifted and moved off to find the people sitting at the tables. They seemed to become more solid then, and people at the tables were jumping up to hug them, and they were hugging back.

Renee had jumped up and sprinted towards one particular ghost who looked exactly like her except slightly younger and with shorter hair and with a slightly yellow light surrounding her hair and shoulders. I watched with a smile on my face for a minute or two, and then Renee was swamped with more ghosts, all smiling and surrounded with those coloured lights, in blue and yellow.

I looked around again and noticed two familiar faces walking towards our table. I couldn't stop the tears as they started to fall.

"Teddy?" I began, reaching over to tell him what was going on. "Look. Teddy, look!" I pointed in the direction of Remus and Tonks coming our way.

The expression on Teddy's face was indescribable. "Mum?" He whispered. "Dad?" He ran towards them quicker than I could remember ever seeing a person run. They stretched their arms out to him and he barrelled into them, crushing them in his eagerness. "It's so great to meet you! You have no idea!" Tonks crouched down and slapped kisses all over his face, looking close to tears herself.

"You're so big now! Remus, look how big he is!" She crowed excitedly. I looked away, not wanting to intrude further.

"Well, that's disgustingly heart-warming." I heard a voice behind me say. I turned quickly to make sure I was right. Everyone at the table, except George who was still grinning, did the same thing.

"Fred!" Ginny exclaimed, trying to wiggle herself out of her chair, her swollen belly in the way.

"George!" I shouted over the crowd, who was crying and whooping and making noises I didn't even know humans had the lung capacity to make. George winked at me again.

"I did a thing. And the thing is awesome." I continued to stare at him and he shrugged. "Everyone can say their goodbyes now." Fresh tears sprung to my eyes faster than they'd ever sprung.

Behind me, I could hear Ginny introducing James to Fred, and Ron and Booboo were over with Renee meeting her family. The rest of the Weasley's were all clamouring to get the attention of Fred, and Draco next to me looked distinctly uncomfortable, staring yearningly over at Teddy and his parents.

"What's wrong?" I asked curiously.

"I feel like I should go over there and say hello."

"Why?"

"Because she's my cousin."

"So go." I instructed.

"But I don't know what to say." Instead of sounding like he was giving excuses, he sounded frustrated by the fact, as though it annoyed him.

"She's your cousin. That's your nephew and former professor. Just say hello." I basically had to push him out of the chair, and then walk him over.

Both Remus and Tonks were hugging their son, smiling like they'd won the lottery and Teddy looked like he didn't want to let them go which I felt was perfectly reasonable. The kid was yammering on excitedly about what he enjoyed doing, what he wanted to do with his life- catching them up. I could see the eagerness on all of their faces, soaking up this tiny amount of time they had to be a family.

"And I live with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, did I tell you that? Grandpa Arthur and Grandma Molly are going to be living with us soon as well. And Aunt Ginny is going to have a baby so there'll be even more people in the house and Uncle Harry says we're going to have to find somewhere else to live because our place is too small but Aunt Ginny says that she lived in an even smaller house growing up and we can cope but I think we should get a house with a bigger yard so I can play Quiddich. Uncle Harry wants me to be a Seeker, and Aunt Ginny thinks I should be a Chaser but I want to be a Beater. What do you think Dad?Because Uncle Draco said-"

"_Uncle_ Draco?" Tonks interrupted, sounding incredulous. Thinking fast, I pushed Draco forwards and smiled right at the shocked Remus and Tonks.

"You heard right, Tonks." I told her. She stared first at me then her gaze went to Draco, trying to come to terms with it. Remus on the other hand smiled his patient, calm smile I remembered from his classes at Hogwarts, before Voldemort.

"Hello Hermione. You're looking well."

"You too. Which is surprising, given the circumstances." I replied, grinning at him.

"You mean the whole death thing?" Remus was grinning right back. "You'd be amazed what dying does for the complexion." I laughed with him, pleased that my old professor was still as I remembered. Tonks still had her eyes on Draco and he was watching her as well. There was a silent sort of communication going on between them and it seemed as though it was going in a good direction. Teddy seemed to notice it too, because he patted his mother's cheek and smiled right at her, nodding slightly.

"You look after my son, Draco?" She demanded.

"I try to." He replied, not looking intimidated at all.

"You get some of those death-eaters locked up?"

"That I did." Tonks was silent for a little while.

"Then I guess you're alright with me." The smile Draco gave was both grateful and triumphant. I couldn't help smiling either, which I thought was slightly odd, but I didn't push myself to hate it. "And what are you doing with this git, Hermione? I was sure you'd end up with Ron."

"Circumstances arose and... yeah." I finished lamely.

"Circumstances arose? That's your brilliant explanation?"

"I thought it was fairly brilliant, yeah." Tonks couldn't seem to continue scolding me for stupid choices, too happy to have finally seen her son grown up.

I left Draco and Teddy to continue their conversation with Tonks and Remus, turning to see what was happening in the rest of the room. The noise had dimmed down a bit and everyone seemed to have gotten over the initial shock. Ginny was laughing at whatever Fred was saying but was making sure to keep an eye on him, not wanting him to disappear again I imagined. Ron, Renee and Booboo were still conversing with Renee's family, and Ron seemed to be shaking the hand of her father. The rest of the Weasley's, Harry and Fleur included, were hovering around Fred, wanting to tell him everything he had missed. I kept my eye on George, however, as he was the only one who had not moved. He was instead gazing around the room with a triumphant smile on his face.

The happy time lasted only a few minutes though. I noticed as some of the ghosts began to fade, and tehir families raced to hug them one last time. Here and there, people disappeared again, I could hear Teddy hurrying up his speech, wanting to make sure his parents knew everything before they left. I closed my eyes as I heard Teddy break off mid-sentence, right in the middle of saying 'I love you.'

And finally, George stood up. Fred made his way over to his twin and they reached their arms out for each other, before holding each other closely one last time. They drew apart, and as Fred started to fade, they chanted one simple sentence together.

"Mischief managed."

* * *

**So how did I do? Are you crying? Or at least a little emotionally violated? Because that was my goal. I actually cried while writing it, but it may not have gotten across properly. Either way, let me know. Also, let me know what you think of the couples/ futures of the other characters: Renee and Ron, the Pansy/ Ron history, Blaise and Luna, if Tonks and Remus were realistic, if you got the sense of family between the Weasley's, etc. **

**Have fun, say hi, please please please REVIEWW! **

**Love Stormy. xoxo**


	4. Breakfast Visits

**Hey peeps! I'm baaaack! I'm SO sorry it's ben so long. My mental health has been shite and it's been difficult to write because of it. I hope you're not too frustrated.**

**This chapter is sort of a filler but I wanted to give a sense of the family life that would be there if Hermione had her memories, if that makes sense. Let me know if it works.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Have fun, say hi, enjoy, REVIEWWW pretty please. **

* * *

As soon as Draco and I got back to the manor, I raced to find my diary, to write down what had happened. At first, my quill stayed still, not moving at all, but then I finally figured out how to explain it and my quill flew across the page.

_ Tonight, George excelled himself. The Hero's Banquet dinner was tonight, celebrating ten years since the end of the War. After they finished calling out the names of the heroes and began the speeches again, George threw this gadget thing into the air and from it, everyone we lost came bursting out. Remus and Tonks, Fred, I think I saw Colin Creevey and Lavender Brown as well, some other teachers and students, and Renee's family too and I also noticed Harry run off at some point, so maybe Sirius and Harry's parents were there as well._

_ Teddy got to meet his parents and let them know how he was, what he was doing, who he was, and Draco got to meet his cousin and let her know he was taking care of her son. The Weasley's got to say goodbye to Fred, although I noticed George said no such thing, instead going with what I assume was an inside joke. I get the feeling that George will never want to say goodbye to his twin._

_ It was actually quite odd there tonight. Everyone had grown up. I mean, Luna was pregnant, and Seamus looked like a body builder, and Neville- for Merlin's sake, when did Neville get attractive?! _

_ And when did I get married? And when did I have a daughter? And when did I get pregnant again?_

_ It's so odd waking up and realising your entire life has continued without your permission. It's so odd finding out you continually fall in love with a man you should hate. It's so odd finding out you have a kid with him. It's just so odd. _

I finished writing and put my diary away, leaning back in my chair. I pulled the pins out of my hair and let it fall around my shoulders, rubbing my temples to get rid of the headache that was starting to pound away. The house was asleep, the paintings on the walls snoring softly. I heard footsteps approaching but I didn't raise my head, closing my eyes.

"You alright? You disappeared on me there." Draco murmured.

"Welcome to my life." There was a slight exhalation of amusement from him.

"You okay?"

"Do you think that what George did tonight was a little bit cruel?"

"Cruel? How?" He asked in confusion.

"You know, they only had a few minutes. Hardly enough time for a conversation. Don't you think it would have been better if he'd just left it?"

"I don't think so. It was enough time to say what needed to be said. Teddy got to tell his parents about his life, that he missed them, that he loved them. The Weasley's got to say goodbye to Fred. Renee got to hug her sister one last time. I think it was enough."

"Yeah, I guess." I closed my eyes and leant back in my chair, breathing out an exhausted sigh.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, just tired."

"Want to go to bed?" My eyes snapped wide open and I gazed suspiciously over at him. Draco chuckled once. "Calm down, you crazy sex monkey. I meant sleeping."

"Probably a good idea." I replied after a few seconds. "Do we normally sleep in the same... you know... bed?"

"Yeah. We _are_ married."

"Right." We were both silent for a minute before I forcefully told him. "No funny business."

"Fair enough." Unexpectedly he grinned at me. "But just so you know, you are fabulous at that. And no to stir my own cauldron, but I am too." Grinning at my shock, he gave me a quick wink before turning away and walking towards his- our- bedroom.

* * *

I woke up the next morning with my cheek resting on a cotton-pyjama-covered chest. There was an arm wrapped around my shoulder, and one of my hands was under a pillow, the other thrown over the chest. I remembered the night before vividly, the way we had both dressed in our pyjamas with our backs facing each other, at my insistence, before climbing into the massive bed draped in luxurious silk sheets. I had scooted over to the furthest side of the bed and Draco had turned his back to me before saying goodnight and waving his wand, extinguishing all the lights, save one.

I recalled falling asleep and having a nightmare I couldn't remember when Draco woke me, whispering comforts in my ear while I whimpered into my pillow. After a few minutes, he had pulled me into his arms and I hadn't objected, tears falling down my cheeks.

"It's alright, love." He had said as he stroked my hair. "I'm here, I've got you." I wasn't as surprised as I thought I should have been when his words calmed me down. I had relaxed into his arms and then must have fallen asleep there.

Looking around the room without moving my head, I figured out that it was still quite early in the morning, closer to eight than anything else. Trying to move as slowly as I could, I tried to untangle my legs from Draco's, but as soon as I moved my left foot out from underneath his right, his flint grey eyes opened.

"Morning, 'Mione." He said, looking down at me and grinning. "Trying to escape from me, are you?"

"Well, no, I was just... I thought you might be uncomfortable so I wanted to give you some space and-" The look in his eyes made it clear that he found my pitiful attempts at lying amusing.

"Trust me, I'm plenty comfy."

"Well um... I was hungry so I was going to make some breakfast."

"Kitzy can do that for you if you ask her."

"I have to use the loo." I said, desperate to get away.

Draco looked at me for a second before sighing and extracting his legs from mine and letting my shoulder go. He pointed to an open door in the far corner of the room and I made my escape. Slamming the door closed, I leant against it for a moment and tried to catch my breath.

Shaking my head at my almost ridiculous overreaction, I spotted the toilet, did my thing and went to the sink to wash my hands and face. Lying on the sink were two toothbrushes and some toothpaste so I picked the red one instead of the green, figuring it was mine, and started to brush my teeth.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I sighed at the mop of bushiness that was my hair, the charms and spells Kitzy had used last night to make it less of a problem having faded away. I looked through the cabinets underneath the sink and finally found a bag full of toiletries, including a brush and comb. I grabbed the mass of hair in my hand and began ripping the brush through it all, trying to get all the knots out, letting the room know just how painful it was.

The door opened and Draco stood there, still looking amused as he reached for the brush.

"Let me do that. There's a trick to it." He started brushing right at the ends of my hair, working out the knots there before going higher on my head.

"How do you know that but I don't?"

"Because I'm the one who figured it out and you can't remember that. Hang on, sorry, this is a big one." He extricated the knot from the rest of my hair and tried to work it into compliance, but it wouldn't cooperate. "Hand me the comb." I did as he said and he tried using the comb on the knot, but again, it didn't work. "Oh, stuff it." He took out his wand and muttered an incantation and the knot unravelled itself quickly. "Better. I have no idea why you insist on this brushing routine when I can just do that over your whole head." He grumbled good-naturedly.

"Probably because I like doing things the Muggle way sometimes." I challenged, looking straight into his eyes through the mirror. He just smiled at me.

"Probably. There, all done." He said, reaching around my to put my brush and comb back in the toiletries bag.

I turned around to thank him, albeit reluctantly, but before I could, I had to rush back over to the toilet, making it just in time before I was violently sick. Draco came over to hold my hair out of my face and he stroked my back at the same time.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. Sorry." I apologised automatically during one of the pauses.

"It's just morning sickness, love. It'll pass in a few minutes." He explained patiently.

"'Just morning sickness'?" I demanded, outraged, though my voice was weak and feeble. "There is no 'just' about it! How about you try spending your entire morning with your head in the-" I interrupted myself loudly and violently.

I stayed silent for the rest of the onslaught, feeling like more was coming up than had ever gone in. The man next to me made sure to keep all my hair out the way, while rubbing consolingly between my shoulder blades and murmuring encouragements in my ear.

When it was finally over, I curled up into a ball next to the toilet and groaned. Draco laughed at my over-dramatised misery, before standing up and walking over to the sink, wetting a towel and bringing it over to me. I took it and wiped my face clean. After a while, I stood up and held my mouth under the running tap, spitting out the foul taste in my mouth.

"Remind me again why women think it's a good idea to have babies."

"Well, the making of is pretty fun." He told me. "And the end result is pretty good too." I didn't have a reply so just remained silent. "Do you want to go back to sleep for a few hours or just stay up?" My grumbling stomach made it clear of my decision. I couldn't understand how, one minute I was completely throwing my guts up and the next, I was totally starving, thinking I'd be sick if I didn't eat _right that second_.

Making our way into the kitchen, I sat down at a stool by the kitchen island and Draco set to work making us breakfast. He collected ingredients from the cupboards and a massive fridge and started mixing and whisking and cutting and I stopped paying attention to what he was doing, until he brought out something that made me want to gag.

"Oh, no, no, no!" I said, throwing my hand over my nose and mouth. "Merlin, what is that?!" Draco turned and held up a hunk of pale yellow cheese.

"It's just parmesan." He said, his eyes both confused and disturbed.

"Put it away!" I demanded through my hands.

"But you like parmesan." He insisted.

"Not any more! Get rid of it." He wrapped the disgusting-smelling cheese back in its wrapper and put it back in the fridge.

"Okay, it's gone. Happy?" He asked rhetorically, going back to his chopping. "When you were pregnant with Cassie, you couldn't stand to be in the same room as fish or onions." He informed me. I nodded tiredly.

A tapping sounded at the kitchen window and I spotted an owl holding a cardboard tube in its beak so I stood up and opened the window, taking the parcel and giving the owl a pat and a treat from a bowl on the windowsill. I opened the tube and took out a copy of the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler, placing them on the island, planning to read them later.

I sat down again, but turned when I heard a little voice behind me.

"Mumma?" Cassie said, and when I turned, she was rubbing her eyes with one hand while grasping her teddy's ear in the other, the legs dragging on the floor. Her golden hair was a downy cloud behind her shoulders, her blue eyes showing how tired she was.

"Hey there, beautiful girl." I replied, smiling at her tenderly and opening my arms. She ran right to me and I picked her up, settling her in my lap while she snuggled into my chest.

"Mumma 'members me, Daddy." She told her father through a yawn. I recalled her saying the same thing the day before, and I wondered if she said it every time I remembered her.

"So she does, hun." Draco turned around and smiled right at his daughter. "You want some chockie milk?" She responded positively, immediately and enthusiastically. I smiled at her childish exuberance.

"I'll have some too, so long as I don't have to get up." I added, squeezing Cassie closer to me. Draco nodded and went to the fridge to grab some milk. Another tap sounded at the window, and Cassie wriggled out of my arms to get it, dragging me over so I could pick her up in order for her to open the window and reach the owl.

"Don't have to get up, my arse." Draco remarked, grinning over at me as he placed three glasses of chocolate milk in front of our chairs.

"Daddy, that's a naughty word!"

"Yes it is, Cass. One that you should never ever use." I replied, reaching for the letter as Cassie fed the owl too many treats.

"Breakfast!" He announced, pushing plates in front of the chairs at the kitchen island.

I stared, astonished at the omelets Draco had made. They looked delicious, filled with what looked like tomato, bacon, cracked peppercorns and green capsicum. Cassie's serve was smaller and she didn't have as much tomato, but it all looked wonderful and my mouth was already watering. I sat down to eat the scrumptious meal and laughed as Cassie tried to wrestle with her knife and fork. After much hassle, she finally asked for my help, and I complied easily, loving how natural this mother thing was beginning to feel. Although the wife thing was still a long way off.

"Want to come with me to visit Uncle Blaise and Aunt Luna later on, Cass?" Cassie nodded around a mouthful of omelet and Draco smiled, then gave me a questioning glance. "You can just hang out with Luna if you like? It's been ages since you went over."

"I don't know. Luna seemed a bit... distant last night."

"Yeah, she's been like that for a while. Ever since... you know..." The light flickered on and I figured out what Draco was talking about: Luna had PTSD. "She doesn't normally like people touching her, apart from Blaise... and you."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because Luna is still Luna. And your head is broken." He told me simply, gulping down the rest of his chocolate milk. He got up to rinse off his dishes and came back to collect Cassie's and mine. "Luna will always give help to those who need it. In her own loony way. So do you want to come visit or not?"

"I'm not sure. I don't know Blaise very well and-"

"Yes you do. Blaise loves you. And finds your reaction to his humour most amusing."

"Blaise has humour?"

"No, not at all."

"Daddy, Unkie Byaise is funny." Cassiopeia argued.

"I'm not saying he's not funny. I'm saying he has no humour."

"Yes he does. He tells knock-knock jokes. Mumma, knock-knock?"

"Who's there?" I reply, grinning over at Draco who was, at this point, shaking his head sadly.

"Help me, I'm Wolbenort," It took me a few seconds to reply.

"Help me, I'm Voldemort who?"

"Help me, I'm Wolbenort, I don't have a nose!" I laughed, mostly because Cassie expected it of me, while Draco continued to shake his head.

"That's just sad, Cass. You honestly think that is funny. Have I taught you nothing?" He asked, though it was so low I doubted Cassie could hear him.

"Daddy, can I wear my Hufflepuff dress today?" Draco blanched at her innocent question.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Cassie? It's not a Hufflepuff dress. It's just a yellow dress."

"No, no, not lellow. Hufflepuff." Our girl was grinning at the traumatised looks her father was sending her way,

"For Merlin's sake, kid, you're going to make me prematurely grey." Cass's face turned confused but she didn't reply. "Fine, you can wear the stupid dress." Cassie shrieked in triumph and hopped off the chair, toddling off to her room, her teddy in tow. "Oy! Where's my morning hug?" Draco demanded.

As though she had just remembered something extremely important, she made a disturbed sound and turned quickly, running towards Draco and pulling him into a massive hug. She pulled back to kiss her father on the lips, making a huge show of it.

"Say g'mornin' to Teddy too, Daddy." She ordered, pushing her teddy right into his face.

He gave the big bear a hug and then, upon her insistence, kissed the toy on its beaded nose. Once she was satisfied, she turned around and went back to her room, calling to Kitzy to help her find her dress. The little elf popped into existence, bowed to us and wished us a good morning, before taking the hand of the golden-haired girl and continuing on to her room.

"Does that happen every morning?" I asked after some silence.

"The mornings you remember, yeah."

"So... big breakfast, conversations with teddy-bears and deliveries of the Quibbler?"

"Technically I didn't have a conversation with Teddy, I just kissed him."

"Because you two have a deeply disturbing relationship."

"We've been having a secret affair on and off for three years now. I am madly in love with Teddy." I fought the urge to laugh, but couldn't defeat it entirely. A few loose chuckles escaped my lips. Draco smiled warmly. "Good to see you smiling. Now go get dressed. They're expecting us in about an hour." He sat down again and began writing a letter, I assumed it was to Blaise and Luna, and I went off to get dressed.

* * *

Blaise and Luna's house was not what I expected. I was expecting either a big, gaudy mansion. Their house was instead quite small, almost cottage-like. It had a big porch wrapped around the entire place, only accessible by sets of three stairs. After arriving at their house by flue, Luna had decided to make us ice-tea and ordered us out to sit on the porch chairs. Blaise had tried to convince her to sit down and rest, but she would have none of it, informing him that she was perfectly capable of making drinks, thank you very much.

While Cassie ran around in the garden, flitting around like a mad little fairy, Blaise and Draco started talking about some sort of import/ export business. From what I gathered, the men were both very high up in a huge trading business that traded magical plants and wand cores between Europe and Asia. As I waited for Luna to come out with the drinks, I tried to pay attention to what they were talking about but couldn't keep up. It was too technical and complicated, even for me. It made me remember how close Draco and I had always been in marks during Hogwarts, how it was often a race between us for best in the class. I had always thought that some of it may have been due to favouritism but maybe it was actually due to real intelligence.

Finally, Luna came out carrying a tray of drinks. Blaise jumped up quickly to help her, but Luna sent him a determined look and he sheepishly sat back down. Draco chuckled demoniacally while I called for Cassie to come grab her lemonade. I suddenly found myself remembering Luna's father's awful tea and I prayed to Merlin that this beverage I was about to drink was at least palatable.

Surprisingly, Luna was a much better drink-maker than her father. The tea was cool, minty and refreshing, not a flavour I was familiar with. Cassie gulped down her lemonade and skipped back down to the garden, running around the wild, untrimmed bushes and laughing as she danced with the wind.

"Cassie, stay inside the violet borders." Luna warned, looking over at me as I frowned in confusion. "Brindewogs don't like violets."

"Brindewogs?" I inquired.

"They're these creatures with really long arms that have been known to drag off children and hide them inside oak trees." Blaise informed me seriously. I looked over at Draco and he grinned and shrugged.

"Do you have any oak trees around here?" I asked.

"No, of course not, but it's better to be safe." Luna smiled over at me and I fought the urge to laugh.

Conversation continued easily, the soundtrack of Cassie laughing providing the perfect ambiance. Finally, though, while Luna was in the middle of catching me up on how The Quibbler became more of a noted magazine and less of an item for ridicule, my daughter came over and curled into my lap, rubbing her eyes and yawning. As I held her close to me, I felt her slowly drift off to sleep and was about to notify Draco when I suddenly noticed he was no longer there.

Luna gave me another patient smile and stood up, heading inside, beckoning to me that I should follow her. The men were chatting in the kitchen when we came in. Luna walked behind Blaise and whispered something in his ear, kissing his cheek in passing. He patted her hand in reply but didn't stop his discussion with Draco, who had already looked over and winked at me as I followed behind Luna, carrying Cassie like a baby.

We came to a stop in a nursery, a large, Muggle crib in one corner, toys and plaything set up in the other, the walls decorated in moving pictures of jungle creatures: elephants, tigers, giraffes, zebras. I also noticed a unicorn, a centaur and a few phoenixes.

I carefully laid my sleeping girl in the crib which she was almost too big for and kissed her forehead. When I turned around, Luna was gazing fondly and dreamily around at the room. Very gently, she placed a tender hand over her pregnant belly, her eyes sparkling in happy contentment.

Looking around at the shelves by the side of the crib, I spotted a single photo, enclosed in a lovely mahogany frame. The photo had been taken of Luna and Blaise, who smiled out at me with carefree, lovestruck smiles. They must have been lying down when the photo was taken. I could see a picnic blanket nestled underneath them, Blaise supporting Luna's head with his arm. As I watched, Blaise turned his head to Luna and kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes in contentment, her smile as bright as Christmas morning.

"Luna, can I ask you something?" Blinking away her reverie, Luna sent her dreamy expression over to me.

"Please do." She replied.

"How did you and Blaise become a thing?" Luna looked down at the photo and walked over to the dresser, picking up the frame and smiling down at her photo-self and photo-husband.

"You always ask that question, Hermione, and I always answer the same way." Luna informed me, in a voice more serious and present than I had ever heard from her. "Blaise Zabini made me fall in love with him."

* * *

**What did you's think? Please let me know. I kind of got the feeling the end of this chapter was a bit rushed.**

**In the next chapter, I was planning to go into Blaise and Luna's relationship because a) I love Bluna, b) I was going to make them important side characters and c) a friend of mine suggested I explain how they came to be. My question is: Should I do that in first person from Blaise's POV or in third person from both their POV's? Thoughts?**

**Again, sorry it took so long to update, as I said, mental health was shite and my writing suffers because of next chapter is not such a long wait away.**

**Anyway, have fun, say hi, REVIEWWWW please.**

**Viral hugs and kisses and high-fives.**

**Love Stormy. xoxoxox**


	5. Gotcha Part 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.**

**Hey guys! Guess who's back? My updates should be more regular now because I finally got home internet! Yay! Just to let you know, this is a flashback chapter of my Bluna couple told in present tense in Blaise's POV, but at the end, it switches back to present time, in Hermione's POV in past tense. I think if you read it through, it should be clear but if not, let me know and I'll do some more editing.**

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**Now let's get on with it! Please let me know what you think!**

* * *

Blaise's POV

3rd May, 2003

Draco Malfoy has taken it upon himself to annoy the shit out of me by ordering an interview- again- with some mediocre magazine sending some amateur reporter to cover a story they know absolutely nothing about. Basically, it's a shitty day.

When Draco and I started up this company, I accepted there was going to be publicity: one death-eater and one almost-death-eater starting up a company to promote the use of healing magic was not something media was going to pass up. But the company has been going strong for months now, and I personally think the attention can stop now.

Draco, apparently, has other ideas.

"Is this absolutely necessary?" I ask for what feels like the fifty-seventh time.

"I've already told you, Blaise. Yes, it is. Would you stop whining for ten seconds please? You're making me want to jump out that window. And you know how much I hate jumping." I groan at his sarcastic, cocky answer and do a dramatic face-palm, waiting for the stupid reporter to bloody show up so I can go and do some bloody work.

We wait for a total of three and a half more minutes before Draco's secretary informs him that the reporter is here. I send a scowl his way when I figure out it's a reporter from 'The Quibbler'.

For Merlin's sake, 'The Quibbler'? Really? Malfoy has sunk to new levels now.

The doorhandle wriggles before opening and a very familiar blonde walks through the door, carrying two thick folders, an odd black rectangular thing and a self-inking quill, her hair held out of her face with her wand. The piercing eyes of the oncoming woman seem far-away and focused on other things, her smile dreamy. She looks around the room first before settling into the chair opposite Draco and me on the other side of his large, extravagant, mahogany desk.

"Good morning." She greets cheerfully, her voice slightly breathy. "I'm Luna Lovegood- editor of 'The Quibbler'. But you're probably aware of that." I raise an eyebrow. Editor? Loony has moved up in the world. "I should warn you, of course, that I don't normally do the interviews so I might be a bit out of practise. My colleague is away with the flu. I'm quite certain she'll survive it. She's very strong. But of course, if she doesn't, I shall be taking over most interviews from now on so I suppose it's good that I'm getting this practise in."

It takes me a few seconds to come up with a reply. Luckily, Draco isn't quite so tongue-tied.

"Always happy to help, Miss Lovegood." He replies without missing a beat, sounding surprised but amused. "Thank you for taking the time off your busy schedule to talk to us."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. And please, Draco, call me Luna. We are old friends after all." This is news to me. And by the look on Draco's face, it's news to him too. "Now, do you mind if I record this? Dennis gave me this wonderful little muggle tool that allows me to record our conversations. I find I have an absolutely terrible memory nowadays."

Brandishing the odd rectangular thing, she places it on her knee and dumps her folders next to her. Slowly reaching down, she picks out a roll of parchment from one of her folders and gets her quill ready, pressing something on her little rectangular thing. Breathing a little sigh, she tilts her head towards us and gives one of her little, preoccupied smiles.

"So, Draco, after the War, both your parents died and you inherited quite a substantial amount of money, some of which you then used to start your business. Do you think your parents would be pleased with the way their money is being used?"

There is a second of silence during which time, my business partner assesses Loony. Then he gives a subtle smile and I know he is pleased with himself. I have to admit even I am quite surprised with the way Loony is going about this interview. Most of the other reporters asked stupid questions like: Has your friendship suffered with the start of this company? Ugh, boring.

"My father, I don't think, would like it, but my mother had a kind heart so I think she wouldn't mind. I don't really think it's any of their business anyway. It's my money now, and I will use it how I wish."

"Would you say you have a rebellious spirit, Draco?" Loony asks quickly, jotting down a few notes.

"Rebellious is an objective term, Luna."

"Well, you certainly have the aura for rebelliousness, but how you use that aura is up to you." Tilting her head up again, Loony smiles at our quizzical expressions and turns her attention to me.

"Blaise, although you also provided quite a substantial sum to jumpstart your business, your main contribution was your vast knowledge of herbology, magical plants and the healing magic of wand cores." Loony quickly explained. "Would you say it was your obvious PTSD that inspired you to lend that knowledge to this company?" I blink about thirty times while Draco scrunches his mouth closed, trying not to laugh. Loony just cocks her head and waits patiently for my answer.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?" I reply dumbly. Her eyes turn irritatingly sympathetic.

"Yes, PTSD." She confirms.

"I'm not sure I understand your question."

"As I'm sure you're aware, PTSD, like most mental illnesses, does not have a permanent cure, or even a proper course of treatment. So would you say that your quest to cure your mind led you to provide possible cures to other people, so they may be more fortunate than yourself?"

"Well to be honest, I never really thought about it that way." I dodge, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Fucking Malfoy is still bloody giggling.

"How did you think about it, Blaise?" Loony inquires, writing down another few notes.

"Frankly, I just thought it would be fun, a bit of a challenge."

"And has it been fun, Blaise?" I take a few seconds to reply, stunned again by her questions.

"Tons of fun." I say, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm being sarcastic or not.

"Good for you, I'm glad to hear it Blaise." What is up with this woman? And how the bloody hell does she find it so easy to render me utterly speechless? And why does she sound so genuine about that last comment?

This woman is seriously messing with my head. And it's bloody irritating.

The rest of the interview passes quietly after that. I don't say much, only piping in when she asks me a direct question. She still asks extremely weird questions, but Draco seems to handle it better than I do. Or at least, handles it louder than I do. When the interview ends, Loony gives another of those frustrating, dreamy smiles and grabs all her things.

"Thank you for meeting with me. This story should be in the next issue." She explains, her eyes darting between us both.

"Absolutely no problem, Luna. It was great to see you again." Draco answers, giving one of his charming smiles.

"Oh likewise, Draco. I haven't seen you since your parents locked me up in their basement and you looked absolutely dreadful then." Loony mentions casually. "I'm pleased you look so much better now." I raise an eyebrow as Draco stumbles.

"Oh, um… thank you, Luna. You look much better as well."

"Only on the outside." She quickly turns and heads to the door. "Have a good day, gentlemen." Loony's parting words come just as the door closes and they are followed immediately by absolute silence until I finally find my voice again.

"Remind me again: Why was that a good idea?" I demand, glaring over at my work colleague.

"Two very important reasons."

"Do tell."

"One: lots of people are reading 'The Quibbler' now." He reasons. I roll my eyes and gesture for him to continue. "And number two is the most interesting one I think." Draco sends me his trademark smirk and I want to smash it off him.

"What is that, Malfoy?"

"Oh, it's 'Malfoy' now, is it?" I just glare at him. "Fine, keep your hair on. Reason number two: she got a reaction out of you, didn't she?"

"She what?" Bloody fucking Malfoy.

"Oh, come on Blaise. I haven't seen you react that way since… well, shit, since your idiotic crush on the Weaselette during Hogwarts."

"I never had a thing for the Weaselette during Hogwarts! She irritated the _fuck_ out of me!"

"Right and so _that's_ why I heard you moaning her name at night when you forgot to silence your curtains?"

"Fuck you Malfoy!" The arsehole chuckles smugly and I storm off towards the door.

"Hey Blaise?" He taunts.

"What?" I retort. Genius comeback, Zabini.

"She's pretty, isn't she?"

"Sod off, Malfoy." I slam the door closed and stalk back to my office before I can be subjected to further ridicule by my prick of a friend.

* * *

5th June, 2003

"So remind me why we're going to the Weasley's and not a pub? Or any other place in the fucking universe? Honestly, I'd be happier at a ballet recital." I complain to Draco as I arrive at his house and prepare to flue to the Weasley's house.

"Because my dear, beloved friend," He replies haughtily. "It's my fucking birthday."

"That's the reason you're going with? Honestly?"

"Honestly, my baby cousin lives there, my friend- girlfriend- I don't know, Hermione lives there and frankly, I don't want to have it _here_." My friend gives me a meaningful look and I sigh, taking the hint. Of course he doesn't want to have his birthday here, in the place that is tainted with so much darkness. But _still_.

"That thing between you and Granger is fucking twisted, mate."

"No, you know what's twisted: Pansy is going out with Ronald Weasley." I gag, slapping a hand over my mouth.

"I think I just vomited in my mouth." I cry, disgusted. Draco nods, looking horrified. "Does she know she's doing that?"

"I think so." Before I can stop myself, I get a disgusting mental image stuck in my head and I shudder uncontrollably.

"Eww!" I shout. "What if they start snogging?"

"I get birthday privileges. I can tell them to go away and do it somewhere else. Like while they're falling off a cliff."

"Good plan. Shall we get this over with then?"

"You could pretend like you're excited, you know. As a belated birthday present." I raise an eyebrow at him but then plaster a smarmy grin on my face and throw an arm over Draco's shoulders.

"Come along, my aged friend. Into the Weasel's den!" Throwing a handful of powder into the flue, we head off to my idiotic friend's stupid birthday party.

* * *

When we arrive, I feel immediately filthy. And with good reason: I am immediately filthy.

Note to self: children throw food at harmless civilians. Never have children.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!"

I hear motherly clucking and am confronted by a plump, flour-covered woman. Sweet Salazar, does every Weasley have to be so _red_?! Rushing towards us, she quickly herds us both out of the fireplace while scolding a little boy with bright pink hair and chocolate covering half his face. While I apply a quick 'scourgify' to my clothes, Draco reassures the red lady and swoops down on the kid, congratulating him on his great aim. Fucking traitor.

I feel completely awkward standing in this chaotic, claustrophobic, noisy house, not even having been introduced to anyone yet, and by the looks of it, Draco knows exactly what I'm feeling. Not that he's going to do anything, bloody irritating prick.

Damn it, I've been here for fifteen seconds and I'm already pissed off.

Reminding myself to smile politely, I push my hand out towards the red lady and introduce myself. She wipes her hands on her apron and comes over to grasp my hand with a surprisingly strong grip. She introduces herself as Molly Weasley and then gestures at the kid, telling me that his name is Teddy. Teddy seems proud of himself, having been perched on Draco's shoulders, grasping at his blonde hair with pudgy, dirty hands.

_No one_ is allowed to touch Draco's hair. Bloody favouritism that is.

Draco gestures with his head towards the centre of the house, his hands busy holding the little tacker secure on his shoulders. I follow behind him, trying to make sure my smile doesn't slip.

I do _not_ want to be here.

"Hey, ferret-boy! Happy birthday!" I hear a familiar voice call out and I turn to see Weasel King sitting on an old, overstuffed couch with Pansy Parkinson perched on his lap. Fuck, cue the vomit.

"No snogging tonight guys. Honestly, my stomach can only tolerate so much." Teddy giggles and quickly agrees. I send a pleading look Pansy's way and she just grins, cuddling up closer to Weasel King.

Oh, barf, get me out of here!

"Surprised to see you here Zabini." The red-haired oaf observes.

"Likewise Weasley." I grunt back not enjoying the concept of having a conversation with him.

"Be nice boys." Pansy scolds, not moving her head off Weasley's shoulder.

"Let's go to the garden before there's a wand fight." Draco quickly dodges the hex and leads me out to the garden, where an outside table is set up already bearing little snacks and drinks, with about twenty people sitting around it. Most of whom, I either don't know or dislike.

This is going to be a _great_ evening. Notice the sarcasm.

Playfully pulling Teddy off his shoulders, Draco hands the kid over to a very enthusiastic Weaselette who, honestly, looks like she could do with a good night's sleep, then frolics off to go look for Granger I'd imagine. That is just so _twisted_.

"So I hear you're off conquering the business world, eh Zabini?" Weaselette asks. She's grasping at straws here and we both know it. This night is going to be awkward and there's nothing any of us can do about it.

"That's one way to look at it." I reply, leaning against the side of the house with my arms crossed while she struggles to keep the kid in her lap still.

"Well how would you look at it?" She questions, using the tone I remember from school: a mixture of amused and annoyed. I shrug non-committedly.

"I'm keeping myself busy. Much like you're doing but in a less… miniature human type way." I reply, glancing down at the wriggling toddler.

"Miniature human?" Now she sounds entertained and I receive one of her rare smiles. Well, rare for me anyway. I smirk in reply. Weaselette rolls her eyes in my direction and then turns her attention back to the squirming kid. Honestly, if the kid does not want to be in your lap, take the bloody hint.

Run away, pinkie. Be free.

Just as I'm about to turn away, the kid lets out a scream and suddenly, his hair is green. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she finally lets Teddy go and he sprints off in the direction Draco went and I genuinely hope for the kid's sake he's not subjected to watching Draco and Granger snogging. I have seen it before and it is _not_ a pretty sight.

"No matter how many times I tell him the opposite, Teddy can't resist Malfoy. It's bloody irritating." She remarks sourly.

"They have a familial bond or some shit." I mention, shrugging. Weaselette lets out a snort.

"That's just cheating."

"And you'd know all about that, Weasley." She smirks at me, and I am reminded of why I did in fact have a thing for this woman in Hogwarts. Thank Slytherin that's over.

"You're not still sore we _continually_ flogged your arse in Quiddich, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Right, because you sound _so_ over that." I can't help chuckling at her tone.

"Sod off Weasley."

"Brilliant comeback. I am completely impressed by your astounding wit."

"I was impressed." Again, she rolls her eyes and then goes back to talking to someone else. I guess I have to get used to being dismissed tonight.

I walk around and chat grudgingly to people who decide I'm worth talking to, which is not many. At some point, I notice Theodore Nott standing around looking awkward and bored so I head off in his direction and have a reasonably entertaining conversation with him, basically ignoring everyone else there. Until Molly Weasley asks where Luna is.

At first, it doesn't click that 'Luna' is Loony. Then I don't understand why she's here in the first place. Then I realise I willingly came to the Weasley house for a night of tame partying and chocolate fucking _cake_, so this really shouldn't surprise. Then my so-called 'friend' once again turns traitor.

"Blaise will find her, Mrs Weasley, won't you Blaise?" I send a proper, Slytherin glare his way while he smirks at me, holding Teddy upside down by his ankles while the kid giggles. Granger, standing next to him, isn't taking her eyes off the kid, her hands at the ready to catch him if Draco loses his grip. I fight the urge to roll my eyes.

"Of course, I would love to go traipsing around in an unfamiliar environment looking for some girl I've only talked to one or two times. That sounds like an absolutely _fabulous_ way to spend my time." I grumble sarcastically. Draco smirks.

"Excellent, off you go then." He dismisses me with a wave of his pale hand and I roll my eyes before, indeed, going after the stupid loony idiot.

Damn Malfoy and his idiotic birthday privileges.

The Weasley garden is large and strewn with vegetable gardens and tall, hardwood trees. I don't fancy my chances of finding this stupid woman within a reasonable amount of time. Running a hand over my face, I tilt my head up with a sigh, already over this useless search party thing. But then, quite unexpectedly, I see the object of my search seated on a branch up in a towering tree, her hair held out of her face with her wand, her head leaning against the trunk of the tree.

I honestly have no clue how the hell she got up there.

Frowning in her general direction, it becomes apparent that she's fallen asleep up there. This gives me two choices. 1: Leave her up there to sleep and probably fall out of the tree at some point. 2: Wake her up and risk her falling out of the tree right now. Either way, it could result in serious injury. Or death.

Either way, I end up looking like a prat.

Remind me again why I let Draco talk me into this. Oh yeah, I'm a fucking idiot.

I walk around the tree carefully, trying to figure out a way up and I finally find a nook to settle my foot into. Summoning my inner five-year-old, I start climbing, not trusting my arms to hold me up at all. Somehow, I make it around to where Loony is snoozing and tell myself not to kill her right now because that would not be helpful.

Slowly, I reach out a hand and tap her left arm. She makes a distressed noise in the back of her throat but doesn't move, luckily. Switching tacts, I rub my hand up and down her forearm and murmur her first name; reminding myself her name is not actually Loony. Her eyes snap open and she starts to wobble on the branch, her legs flailing. Just as begins to fall, I grab the lapels of her jacket and pull her torso towards me, wincing as she shrieks.

"It's alright, I've gotcha." I try to reassure her, but her eyes are still twitching around looking for danger. "Luna, calm down. You just fell asleep." Finally, she seems to recognise me.

"Oh, Blaise! I'm sorry." She starts to smile, but then frowns. "Why are you here?"

"Because I was invited. Why are you here?" I reply grudgingly.

"No, no, I meant: Why are you here in the tree?"

"Because I was looking for you. What are you doing up here anyway?"

"I see things much better up here. Besides, it's the perfect way to get away from… sympathisers." I raise an eyebrow but let the comment pass.

"Come on. I think they're about to start eating."

"Oh lovely. I hope there's pudding." Finally smiling that dreamy smile, she follows me as we make our way down the tree.

* * *

Two hours later, the food has been eaten, the cake has been cut and honestly, I really think it's time to go home. Unfortunately for me however, everyone else has a different idea. As I sit on the Weasley table between Theo and Loony, everyone chats amicably around me, and seriously, I just want out of there. This is not a civilised way to have a party. Everyone is still sober, and I have not even _seen_ a bottle of firewhisky. This has got to be one of the worst parties I've ever been to.

Have you ever been so bored, you wished there was a cliff to jump off just for something to do? Yeah, well, welcome to my world.

Breathing a heavy sigh, I take another bite of the chocolate cake in front of me- okay I have to admit, the food has been excellent all night. In fact it's probably been the best part of the whole night. The two people next to me are quiet as well, though with Theo it's to be expected. He has always been the broody, quiet, mysterious type. He's a total wanker that way. Makes me wonder why I hang out with him.

"You're not enjoying yourself at all, are you Blaise?" I hear Loony ask, and I turn my head in her direction. "It's quite obvious if you pay attention."

"Is that so?" I reply exhaustedly, really not in the mood to deal with crazy people right now. Actually, I'm not in the mood to deal with _people_ right now but whatever.

"It's exhausting, isn't it? To keep up appearances."

"You have practise with keeping up appearances?" I cock my head at the blonde woman next to me, wondering what is going on in the weird head of hers.

"I think everyone does. In some way at least." I nod my head at her, gesturing for her to continue. "Take Ginny for example. She looks happy, doesn't she? But if you watch her, there are times when she'll look over at Teddy and you'll see a yearning in her eyes. She wants a baby, but she doesn't want to say it outright." Sneaking a look at Loony's subject of attention, I do notice the slightly winsome looks she's throwing at the kid. "Or take a look at Ron- he looks entirely comfortable with Pansy, but you can see every so often, he's worried about something. And Pansy is clearly uncomfortable near Theo. I think we both know what happened there. Not that it's any of my business." I snort in amusement and cover it up by taking a sip of the sweet, bubbly drink I had been given earlier on tonight. "My point is, Blaise, everyone is hiding something. You don't have to be a genius to see it. You just have to observe."

"And that's why you fell asleep in a tree?"

"That's exactly the reason Blaise. But I don't need a bird-eye view to see how miserably bored you are here."

"Oh?"

"Blaise, you've been checking your watch every two minutes for the past hour. Sorry, but you're not exactly subtle." Loony casually eats a forkful of cake, giving a tiny grin as I choke on air. "Would you like to go somewhere else, Blaise? I found this wonderful little shop in muggle London that's open all night."

I know the obvious answer: Hell no. But I'm also an idiot. So instead of the obvious, logical, sane answer, the stupid one comes crashing out of my mouth before I can stop it.

"Sure, why not?"

Smiling, Loony stands up and heads towards the head of the table where Draco is sitting and has a tiny conversation with him, handing him a neatly wrapped parcel. Straightening, she starts to head in my direction and Draco watches her go, smirking when he sees me stand up as well. I give a quick wave and thank Mrs Weasley for having me over, after which she gives me an open invitation to drop in any time- an invitation I will blatantly ignore.

Joining me, Loony offers her arm and we side-apparate into muggle London. Merlin, the noise is unbelievable, wave after wave of droning sound overtaking my hearing in a matter of milliseconds. Still feeling slightly ill from the apparition, it takes me by surprise when a pale, feminine hand grabs a hold of my lapel and pulls me abruptly sideways, just as a huge red bus speeds past me, narrowly missing me.

I look down into the clear grey-blue eyes of Luna Lovegood, her smile steady and calm, not seeming to be affected by the fact that she just saved my life.

"You just- I almost-" I stutter. Frowning for a split second, Loony quickly adopts her normal, dreamy smile and pats my chest.

"I know. But don't worry Blaise. I gotcha."

* * *

Hermione's POV

Present Day

"So you saved his life?" I asked Luna, confounded. We were sitting outside again and our husbands- whoa, weird- were still inside talking about guy stuff. Whatever that was. Luna gave me a patient smile and nodded slowly.

"Do you think that was the wrong thing to do, Hermione?" She replied looking vaguely amused.

"No, no, just- so what happened next?" Looking down, Luna's patted her stomach and struggled to stand up.

"How about we have lunch first? We both have to eat for two now, don't we?" She suggested casually, heading inside.

I stared after her in shock. I had totally forgotten about that. And I wasn't so sure I liked the reminder.

* * *

**So thoughts? Please let me know. Also, I was hoping to get a beta for this story. If anyone is interested, either leave a review or PM me. **

**I should have another chapter done by next Sunday, if all goes to plan. As you gathered, the Bluna thing will be either a two-parter or three-parter, I'm not entirely sure yet. **

**Anyway, leave a review if you can.**

**Love Stormy. xoxox**


	6. Gotcha Part 2

**Disclaimer: I am not Queen JK. Unfortunately.**

**A/N: Sorry it's taken so long. To quote this story, 'circumstances arose and... yeah'. Sorry. I have excuses but they suck so I won't tell you. Anyway, moving on.**

**I'd like to thank:**

Brightfrost123** and **Beeweezy8** for following,**

Honeysuckleer** and **EmoPrincess21** for favouriting,**

**and **Guest, Lazzarnia5887** and **Remadoralove** for reviewing since last chapter. I love you guys!**

**I'll leave you's to it. **

**Have fun, say hi, enjoy, REVIEWW!**

* * *

Blaise's POV

5th June, 2003, continued

Still recovering from the vicious attack upon my blessed person by a raging bus- okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit but I blame the shock- Loony drags me down several hectic streets of Muggle London. I am honestly not interested in where I am going, instead glaring suspiciously at all the vehicles racing past me, absolutely certain that one of them will aim for me again, determined to crush me this time.

Loony doesn't seem to notice, pulling me onwards until we stop outside the door of a store with a glowing red and blue sign in the window, telling us that the store belongs to 'Madam Sophia- Psychic'. I tell myself not to scoff, but it's difficult. Still having a tight hold of my long sleeved, navy blue shirt, Loony pulls me into the store.

The scent is undeniably overpowering. It worms itself into my nostrils, burns my lungs and makes my eyes water. I make a disgruntled noise and Loony looks over at me.

"Yes it's quite strong, isn't it? Must be they're trying to guard against something. Maybe it's the nargles." My eyes widen slightly, totally surprised.

I knew I wasn't the only one who believed in nargles!

Suddenly feeling a strange sense of camaraderie with the dreamy blonde opposite me, I smile at her, something I haven't genuinely done in quite a while.

"I don't think it's the nargles, Luna. I think muggles are just weird."

"Maybe so, but I would like to think it's the nargles. It's a bit more fun that way." Loony replies, turning away and looking around the room- I follow her example.

The room we are in is remarkably dark, lit only by strategically placed candles. A darkly varnished wooden counter separates the larger part of the shop off from another room, made inaccessible by a plum, velvet curtain. All around the room, aged, stained posters and pictures inform us about palm reading and star signs, and tatty, hard-cover books offer information about auras and dream walking. Loony seems fascinated by a silver bowl on the wooden counter containing dozens of small, smooth stones, all different types- quartz, jasper, aquamarine and many others I don't know.

Plunging her dainty, pale fingers into the bowl, she scoops out a handful of stones and runs her thumbs over them. I lean against the wall and stare inquisitively at her, arms crossed across my chest.

"Muggles think these stones have meaning. That they provide balance or help the life force or help calm the mind." Slowly, she lets the stones fall from her fingers, landing with gentle sound back in the bowl. "They're wrong, of course. But it's a nice story, don't you think?"

And suddenly, she sounds sad and heavy, like the weight of a thousand worlds is resting on her petite shoulders and I am struck by the insane urge to comfort her somehow, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Her dreamy, faraway eyes are further away than I've ever seen them, and I wonder what dark secrets lay behind the cool blue of her gaze. Then I mentally slap myself for being such a disgustingly cheesy idiot.

Chimes sound from behind the velvet curtain and a bedazzled, bejewelled, bespectacled woman steps out, looking like she is in desperate need of some sleep, some toothpaste and a haircut. She smiles a toothy, unsettling smile and settles herself behind the counter.

"Good evening." She greets in a dramatic voice. "I am Madam Sophia. How are you this evening, my dears?"

"How about you tell us?" I reply to her cynically. Instead of being riled, as would be the polite thing to do, she instead just smiles patronisingly at me.

"My dear that is not how I work." She informs me. Raising two ring-clad hands in the air and gesturing to the curtain behind her, she divides her gaze between Loony and me. "Come. Let me read you your fortune." Without waiting for us to comment, she turns around and enters the room behind the curtain.

"I'm not entirely sure I want her to read my fortune. I am getting Trelawney flashbacks. And not all of them are comforting." I tell Loony, point blank.

"Come on, Blaise, it could be fun, you never know. And besides," She continues. "I don't think it smells as bad in there."

"Well, in that case." I reply, and I all but leap into the room behind the counter. Loony follows behind me.

The room we enter is even darker than the entrance chamber. There is only three candles, all grouped together in a shallow, stone dish in the middle of a round table. Madam Sophia- cue the eye roll- sits on the farthest spot away from the curtain. Two other, uncomfortable looking chairs surround the table and Loony and I sit down, glancing around the room, me suspiciously, her curiously.

'Well done, Zabini.' I think to myself. 'Follow the crazy chick into muggle London. Oh yeah, one of your best plans, that was.'

"Which one of you would like your reading done first?"

"How about you go first, Blaise?" Loony replies instantly. I look over in her direction, trying not to scowl, before I look back to Sophia and shrug, sending a silent message that I don't really care.

"You have a very dark aura, my dear. I see you are very strong, but shrouded in darkness. But have no fear, there is hope." Well thank dear sweet baby Merlin for that. If this woman continues to be so irritating, I may not be responsible for my actions. "I see brightness in your future, one person who will lead you out of the dark. This person is very close to you at this time." Oh fabulous.

Can we move on, please? This could have been funny but it is not- it's annoying. Madam Sophia gestures for me to give her my hand and I roll my eyes before moving my palm into her line of vision. Clammy hands enclose it in a vice-like grip. I look over at Luna who seems inquisitive.

"My dear, you have a strong life line. You have a desire to live." Well I could have told you that. "And you have a very straight head line. You have a methodical mind, a head made for business; you like to think things through, to have a plan. However, these slight variations, the tiny breaks and cracks in your line mean that behind the analytical part of you, behind the cynicism and abruptness, you do believe in magic." Well _duh_! I think I hear a small giggle next to me. At least Loony is enjoying herself. "But it is your heart line, my dear that you should be the most proud of." Great, so now I'm supposed to be proud of wrinkles in my palm? Brilliant. "For you see, my dear, you have an unbroken, deep heart line. This means you will only love one person, wholly and deeply, in all of your life." I cannot resist replying to that.

"Really? I think you're wrong about that."

"Lust is not love, my dear. Love is the very essence of humanity; it is what keeps the world turning. You may say, with your cynical mind, that money or power or politics is the foundations of this world, but you would be wrong. It is love. It has always been, and will always be love." Sweet Salazar, what decade is this woman living in? "You must believe me, my dear. You must find this person who holds the key to your heart, for only then- _only then_\- can you be free of the darkness that surrounds you."

"I see. Helpful. Thank you." I say to her, hoping she will leave me alone now. Giving me a patronising smile, she pats my hand and then turns to Loony. Well thank Merlin for that.

"Now you my dear, you have a blinding aura." The psychic tells Loony as though that is a problem. "A very distracting aura. But I see, my dear. I see your pain, your suffering; I see the darkness you hide behind your blinding light." What is it with this woman and darkness? For fuck's sake, did we apparate to Trelawney's older, weirder, muggle sister? "But my dear, like your friend, you have hope. Someone to lean on, someone who can offer you respite, someone who will help you fight. But you must find them, or be consumed by the darkness." Loony nods like she's taking this woman seriously. I hope she's not. Before the woman even has to ask, Loony passes her hand to her and the psychic inspects it. "Oh my dear, my poor, sweet dear! You have had such a hard life. Such tragedy, such pain, such suffering. What a strong woman you must be."

I spare a glace to Loony, who seems uncomfortable and fidgety. The arm that the psychic is holding is rigid and tense, almost shaking with strain. I look to her face and she looks almost sick, growing paler and paler in the dim candlelight. I frown at her.

"So much conflict from one so young." Madam Sophia continues, not noticing Loony's discomfort. "But again, like your friend, you have a strong heart line. But it's different. It's- oh, I see. This is not just about love." Slowly, the psychic lets Loony's hand go and leans back in her chair, bracing both her hands on the table. "My dear, you must listen to the advice I give you." Slowly, Loony shakes her head and meets the eyes of the overly-dramatic woman. "You _must_ find this person. There is no doubt about that. There is no other way. Without this person in your life, you will never recover, you will never find peace, and you will _never_ be able to tolerate the touch of another human being."

Wait- what?

Dividing my glances between the psychic and Loony, I see the subtle, silent conversation going on between the two of them. I wish I knew what was going on, but more specifically, I wish I had never agreed to come with Loony on this ridiculous night out.

Screw Malfoy for having such a boring birthday party!

"I understand." Loony finally says. Understand what? _Understand what?!_ "Thank you for your advice. Do we pay out there?" She gestures behind her and I freeze. I don't have muggle money on me. Could this night be any worse?

"Indeed. Follow me my dears." The psychic stands and leaves the room. I send an awkward glance to Loony.

"I don't have muggle money." I tell her. Loony just smiles her dreamy, preoccupied smile. Her eyes shine in the candlelight.

"Don't worry, Blaise. I gotcha." She tells me before standing and leaving the room.

'I gotcha'? What is that, our thing now? Bloody hell.

* * *

When we meet up on the muggle street outside the psychic shop after Loony has paid our dues, there is a tense moment of awkwardness. And when I say 'moment' I mean 'minute' and when I say 'awkward' I mean 'unbelievably uncomfortable'. But then Loony breaks the silence, shocking me in the process. Again.

"Well I could go for a pint. What do you say Blaise?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

"A pint?" I say, doubt present in my tone.

"You're right, maybe not a pint. How about some firewhisky? I've got some at my place."

"Firewhisky?"

"Yeah."

"You're going to drink firewhisky?" My voice is dripping with cynicism.

"Why not?"

"Good point." I agree quickly. "Alright then." I was planning on drinking anyway; it's not my fault Draco decided to have a kid-friendly party. Bloody idiot. And if I'm going to drink, I might as well do it for free.

Still smiling, Luna reaches her hand out, palm up. I frown at her, remembering the way she had looked when the psychic had held her hand and the little comment she had made afterwards. Loony notices my hesitancy, rolling her eyes, grabbing my hand and placing it on her arm, over the long, red sleeve of her top.

She takes out her wand and we apparate out of there.

Loony's house is very very small and very very cosy. I'm not entirely sure I like it. After making some comment about 'making myself at home' Loony goes off into another room of the house, leaving me to look around. The room I find myself in seems to be a living room, with cheerful, patterned chairs and sofas and a small, wooden coffee table, on which sits four plastic coasters. There is a piano in the corner of the room, a piece of music sitting on it. I go to inspect the piece and don't recognise it. It's only half-finished. I raise an eyebrow at the thought of Loony writing music.

I hear rattling behind me and turn to see Loony coming in with a bottle of firewhisky and two tumblers.

"Do you play Blaise?" She asks as she pours out the drinks into the tumblers and hands one to me.

"Yeah, my mother was adamant that all her children learn to play an instrument." Brilliant, Zabini, bring up the mother. What is wrong with you? Groaning to myself, I take a sip of the alcohol and feel it burn a trail down my throat. "So what's up with the no touching thing?"

"Oh that. I have PTSD too Blaise." I raise an eyebrow at her. "During the War, I was kept in the Malfoy basement for a little while and every day while I was there, one of the deatheaters would come down and use the Cruciatus on me and then rape me. Which wasn't very pleasant." Sweet Merlin. I gape at her, my mouth hanging open like a fish. How can she say that so casually? She takes a gulp of her firewhisky. "So to this day, I don't really like people touching me."

"Understandable." I reply quickly, not really knowing what else to say. Loony suddenly seems more present, like more of her concentration is focused on the here and now.

"I like you Blaise." She tells me.

"W-w-what?" I stammer.

"When I tell other people that, they give me pity or sympathy and I don't need that. I don't need the false promises of it all going to get better. It happened and I'm dealing with it in my own way. You seem to understand that. Thus, I like you Blaise."

I stare at the dreamy, weird blonde in front of me and am rendered speechless. Bloody _again_. How many times has this happened with her? For Merlin's sake, what is wrong with me? This woman is damaged and nutty and crazy and weird and so not my type. But she also saved my life, trusted me with her secrets, freed me from the most agonising birthday party of my life and managed to make me smile, something I haven't done in years. Plus, it doesn't hurt that she is fairly pretty.

Bloody fucking _dammit_!

"I like you too, Luna." I say, mostly out of politeness but also because I think I am actually starting to like her. Slightly. Surprising me again, Luna chuckles.

"No, you don't Blaise. Not yet. But you might someday." Then, walking over to the piano, she sits down at the stool and starts to play.

And Slytherin, this girl can really play.

* * *

By the time I leave, it's very early morning. We have drunk a bit of firewhisky but I am by no means drunk. I am also not exactly sober. I am blissfully in between.

Loony walks me to the door before I leave, giving me another smile. We have spent the night playing piano in between random spurts of conversation. I have to say, this girl has surprised me. And not altogether in a bad way. Some of it has been in a good way. Okay fine, _mostly_ in a good way.

Loony opens the door for me and we step out onto the porch. I take my wand out to apparate home, already anticipating my bed.

"I was wondering if you would like to grab lunch together sometime Blaise."

Wait- what? "Umm…" Is my genius reply.

"Not like that, of course Blaise. Just two friends, having lunch." And stupidly, like I have been doing all bloody night, I agree to the lunatic's proposal.

"Sure, Luna. That sounds good."

"Excellent, I'll send you an owl and we can get together. Goodnight Blaise."

"Goodnight Luna." And before I can agree to any other stupid, crazy ideas, I apparate home.

* * *

Hermione's POV

Present day

"So you save his life, see a psychic with him, get drunk with him then invite him to lunch?" I summarised, sitting across from Luna as we shared a lunch of chicken Caesar salad.

"I wouldn't say we were drunk, Hermione. More like… slightly tipsy." Luna replied, taking a sip of the apple juice she had poured for herself.

"But there was piano playing?"

"Blaise is a wonderful pianist." She told me with a warm, fond smile. "You should really hear him sometime."

"I'd love that. But why would you invite him out? You'd only known him for a few hours."

"Hermione, what you need to understand is that after the war- after I told people what had happened to me at Malfoy Manor- everyone was very… cautious around me, more so than at Hogwarts, and in a different way. At Hogwarts, everyone just kind of gave me space, which I appreciated," Well, that was a kind way to look at it. "But after the War, everyone was being overly kind and pitying. Blaise was the first person I met who didn't give me pity. Everyone else treated me as though I was likely to break but Blaise… he treated me as though I were a woman. He understood, but he didn't pity me. And that was what I needed. It's still what I need."

"Still telling this story, love?" Blaise came into the kitchen behind Luna and planted a kiss on her head, running his hand soothingly over her hair. Draco came in behind him, carrying Cassie on his hip and smiling at me. I frowned at him, wondering why Cassie was out of bed, but he just shook his head.

"I like this story Blaise."

"I know you do. I do too." Blaise took the seat next to her and kissed her cheek.

Draco, with Cassie in his lap, sat down next to me. Finally, I saw why Cassie was up- something must have woken her and now she was forcing herself to stay awake. I assumed she wanted to be one of the big kids. I smiled and kissed her downy hair. She needed a bedtime story.

"I like this story too. Keep going Luna." I asked and Cassie raised her head, yawning.

"Is Aunt Luna telling her faiwy stowy?" My baby girl asked in a tiny, tired voice.

"Yeah she is, baby girl." Draco informed her, holding her close to his chest.

"Yay." Cassie replied, sounding exhausted.

Every adult at the table smiled before Luna started talking again.

* * *

**A/N: What did you's think? I thought it was a bit rushed, your thoughts? Let me know. **

**Laters,**

**Love Stormy. xoxoxo**


	7. Gotcha Part 3

**Disclaimer: Not JK. Clearly**

**A/N: Hi guys, back again. I thought you guys deserved an early one after the long wait last time. **

**Thanks to:**

SnapePotterBlack16, ParkerEthanRed, kat1231 **and** Firecrane930 **for following,**

Raerkyza **for favouriting**

**and **raneydhr **for reviewing.**

**Sorry guys, but I was wrong about the time frame of Bluna. I think about 5 chapters now, but then we're back to Dramione lovey goodness. **

**Anyway, let me know what you think if you've got time. **

**Enjoy, have fun, say hi, REVIEWW!**

* * *

Blaise's POV

26th June, 2003

For the past three weeks, I have been questioning my sanity on a daily basis. This is not something I normally do. I am the most logical, sane person I know, and I have kept that title since before Hogwarts. I think things through, I have a plan, and I never do things that have not been carefully thought out. Most of my plans have detailed, step-by-step instructions written down on carefully organised parchment- including diagrams.

So what the fuck am I doing?!

For three weeks, every three days, I have met up with Luna Lovegood to have lunch and, yes, chat. I am not a chatter- I do not chat- but I have found myself constantly chatting with this girl over a coffee scroll and a _latte_. Until three weeks ago, I didn't even know what a latte _was_, and now, it's gotten to the point where I can't function without my latte every three days. There must be something _diabolically_ wrong with me, like a diagnosable, psychological problem.

It's not the fact that I continue to do it- I can blame that on me being polite, possibly even _nice_. It's not that we're having lunch in muggle London- I can blame that on having to keep an eye on the rogue, bloodthirsty buses of London. It's not even the ordering of lattes- lattes are actually nice. It's the fact that I like her that concerns me. It's the fact that this girl makes me _smile_.

This girl makes me bloody _laugh_, for Merlin's _fucking_ sake.

I don't know what to do. This is fucking ridiculous. It's not that I'm not used to liking a girl- or guy, to be perfectly honest- but this isn't that. This is not like some stupid crush I had in school. That usually came with, to be frank, quite indecent dreams and a sudden need to change the sheets. This is different. This is _not natural_.

This is me waking up every third morning already fucking _grinning_, out the door quicker than any other day with a sudden _need_ to clear out an hour for lunch. It started out with just half an hour and it moved up to an entire fucking hour, and even that doesn't seem like enough.

Even Draco has noticed and his stupid smirks have become bloody unbearable. Not that they weren't before but this is constant, over-the-top, smug smirking that makes me want to ram his head through a wall, saw his face off and feed it to a hippogriff. Possibly the one that 'almost took his arm off' in third year. Wouldn't that be a cruel irony?

I do not react like this. I do not chat. I am not nice. I do not laugh. I do not smile. I do not hang out in muggle London. I do not drink lattes. I do not eat coffee scrolls. I do not scrape the icing off a coffee scroll and give it to the person I'm eating it with. I do not skip to a lunch and then slump away feeling like shit after it is over.

I do not do any of that shit so _what the fuck_ is wrong with me?!

Actually, I know exactly what's wrong with me: Luna Lovegood is growing on me.

Life just isn't fucking fair.

* * *

It's 11:47 which means I have to wait another thirteen minutes before I can leave for lunch with Luna- yes, she's Luna now, get over it. I am antsy and fidgety, pacing around my office like a caged tiger. I have a 1:45 appointment with a representative from an Asian herbology firm but my day is clear until then, so I literally have nothing to do. For another twelve and a half minutes.

Dammit!

My secretary's raven patronus makes its way into my office, telling me that Miss Parkinson is here to see me. Normally, I would be irritated at the prospect of seeing Pansy this early in the day- or any time during the day really- but at this point, I'm desperate for a distraction. So I send out my own patronus telling her to come in because I'm too lazy to walk three steps to open the door and wait for her to come in while I take a seat in my comfortable swivel chair.

"Blaise, darling, how are you?" Pansy greets me and I fight the urge to roll my eyes.

Pansy is dressed as flawlessly as she always is, her brown hair shiny and silky. And instantly I find myself comparing it to Luna's blonde locks and find it wanting.

Leave me _alone_, Luna!

"What do you want, Parkinson?" I demand, gesturing for her to take a seat on the other side of my desk.

"No small talk?" She asks coyly, taking a seat. I raise my eyebrows at her, letting her know I am not fooled. "Alright, fine, if you want it that way, we'll get straight to business." Pansy says sulkily. I smirk and gesture for her to continue. "I need some advice Blaise. I made a mistake."

"Let me guess: You cheated on the Weasel." Her shocked expression is priceless. "With Theo." I add quickly to savour the moment.

"H-how did you know about that?"

"It's bloody obvious. Weasel must be totally blind not to have seen it already. So what do you want from me, Pansy? And be quick, I have an appointment in ten minutes." Actually, eleven minutes but shut up.

"I'm not entirely sure what to do now Blaise."

"And so you came to me. Was Draco out?"

"No, I just thought you might have a better idea than him."

"Huh. I doubt that. But alright, the way I see it, you have two options. Option one," I inform her, counting it off on my fingers. "You don't tell him and risk him finding out on his own. Which means you'll have to deal with lying to him as well as cheating on him. Which will almost definitely end up with you two breaking up. Option two," I continue, not missing a beat. "You tell him now, which again, will almost definitely wind up with you two separating. Unless of course, he's more even desperate than I thought and he winds up begging you to stay. But if that happens, there'll be the lack of trust issue which will eventually poison the relationship to the point where you might as well have split up in the first place. So realistically, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"That's your advice? A rock and a hard place? That's all you've got?"

"Look, you've been with him for- what- two months? Three? He obviously wasn't enough for you if you're already looking for other guys. I would cut your losses and run, honestly."

"But I think I love him."

"Oh, for fu-" I run a hand over my face, trying to keep my impatience in check. I glance at the clock on the wall. Eight minutes to go. "Well, if that's true, then be honest with him. When you're in love with someone, you're supposed to be honest with them, right? Well, tell him what you did and let the potion spill as it will. If he wants to run, respect his decision and let him, okay? I really think that's all you can do in this situation."

"So I should tell him?"

"Yes." I am already over this conversation.

"Just let him run?"

"Yes."

"But I don't want to let him run." Sweet fucking Salazar, will this woman ever shut up? Breathing a sigh, I pinch the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger.

"So… fight for him… or something." I suggest. Pansy shoots me an annoyed look.

"You are useless Blaise." I smirk smugly.

"Thank you. Are we done here?"

"I'm having a crisis here Blaise."

"Really? You call this a crisis?" Pansy rolls her eyes at me. At least I was polite enough to stop myself from doing that to her. Uncultured swine.

"Ugh, fine. I'll let you get to your super important lunch. Who are you meeting with anyway?" No way am I telling her that.

"None of your business, Parkinson." I reply cheerfully. "Now shoo." I make a dismissive gesture with my hand and she stands, heading to the door with all her pureblood-upbringing grace.

"See you later darling." She says as she closes the door.

My head slams down into my hands and I groan, deeply and painfully. Dear Merlin, save me from the stubbornness of pureblood witches. Lifting my head again, I look at the clock.

Two minutes to twelve.

Oh, fuck it. I can be two minutes early.

* * *

The annoying thing- well one of the annoying things- about cafes in muggle London is the inability to just apparate myself straight into a seat or right in front of the counter. Instead, I have to apparate into the alley _next_ to the café and _walk_ in. Like a _normal_ human. Because the universe hates me.

So it's no surprise that, as I walk into the little muggle café, I am extremely grumpy. Well, more so than usual anyway. I also have to blame Pansy for contributing to my mood. Why she came to _me_ for advice about a _relationship_ I will never know.

Breathing a sigh, I join the queue by the counter and wait to be served. The sky is grey and gloomy, mirroring my mood, and a frigid wind is starting to pick up. I normally don't mind cold weather, but at this point, I'm finding fault with everything. I need coffee.

Speaking of…

"Hello love." The lady behind the counter greets me. "You want the usual?" Oh Merlin, I have a usual now?

"Thanks." I reply simply, side-stepping into the corner so I'm not in the way, but of course there is no need as there is no one behind me.

"Where's that sweet girl you're always with? Trouble in paradise?" I let out a surprised chuckle.

"Hardly. She's just… walking through the door." I finish my sentence wryly, my face unconsciously curling up into a smile. Something is wrong with me. "Hi Luna." I greet as said woman walks towards me, her arms overloaded with books and quills and parchment. She looks slightly exhausted, but she still smiles dreamily in greeting and comes over to us.

"Hello Blaise. Patricia, how are you?" She says to me and the lady behind the counter, Patricia. How come Luna knew her name and I didn't?

"I'm just fine, sweetie." Patricia replies, starting to make my latte and her hazelnut cappuccino. "How about you though? You look a bit frazzled."

"A bit frazzled, yes, but I'm fine. Did you order?" I really should not find Luna's habit of radical topic changing so amusing.

"Yes he did, your man is quite efficient. How about you two go sit down and I'll come over in a bit?" Patricia suggests and we follow her advice, taking a booth by the window so that we can… I don't know… watch the clouds or something equally derivative.

"What's all that?" I ask Luna. She seems a bit surprised to be asked a question. Plopping all her baggage unceremoniously on the table, she runs a shaky hand through her hair. I frown at her- I've never seen her this… worried. "You alright, love?" Holy shit, where did that come from? Dammit!

"I'll be taking three days off starting tomorrow and I needed to get this stories edited and ready for publication before I do. But it's a lot more than usual because so very much has been happening lately- there was another sighting of the crumple-horned snorkack three days ago and there is a biologist theorising about why the giant squid at Hogwarts is so very grumpy- that is actually a fascinating theory. Plus Dennis did a larger-than-usual muggle studies section and there were several Quiddich scandals and a game over the weekend so there's just quite a lot to do." Whoa. Pretty sure I blacked out somewhere there.

"Well would you like to skip this lunch and just go back to work?" Please say no, please say no, please say no. Stop being pathetic Zabini.

"Oh no, of course not Blaise. I can fit this in and just work late tonight." Patricia comes over with our beverages. Luna grabs her hazelnut cappuccino and guzzles it, ending up with chocolate-powdered froth coating her upper lip.

"Well would you like some help?" Again, Luna looks surprised but she doesn't actually reply. "I might not be much help on the fact checking side, but I can check grammar and spelling and make sure it legible and interesting to read at least. I haven't got anything for an hour and a half-ish so I can stay till then."

"Could you Blaise? That would be so helpful!" She smiles at me, her dreamy, barely there smile. I smile in return like the idiot I am. For Merlin's sake, this is a fucking problem!

"No worries. I'll just talk to Patricia. We'll need more coffee. And lunch, because I'm starving and a coffee scroll isn't going to cut it. Chicken, lettuce and mayo good for you?" I start to stand.

"Extra pepper please." Luna replies, spreading out the work over the table.

"Extra pepper coming up."

* * *

An hour later and I have drunk two cups of coffee, an orange juice and half a chocolate milkshake, eaten half a coffee scroll, a caramel slice and a sandwich, and dealt with about as many 'there, their and they're' mix-ups as I can handle.

But according to my brain which, after I die, should be dissected in the name of science because there must be something wrong with it, it is all worth it because Luna looks more like herself and less like a worried, tired, worn-out employer of 'The Big Man'.

"This is absolutely fabulous, Blaise. Thank you so much. I should have this all done by the end of today, thanks to you." Do not grin, do not grin, do not grin. Oh for fuck's sake Zabini!

"No problem, Luna. Anytime." I reply. Grinning. Fuck my life. "Out of curiosity, why won't you be at work for three days?"

"Because it's Dad's birthday on the twenty-eighth. And I find myself getting very depressed because of it." Those two sentences really don't add up. Understanding my shocked expression, Luna continues. "Dad killed himself on his birthday a few years ago. I get incredibly upset about it the day before, the day of and the day after his birthday. So I give myself three days a year to be sad before I go back to work." This time, she misunderstands my expression. "But don't worry, Blaise, I always make sure someone capable is in charge of The Quibbler so that the issue gets out on time. I think I'll leave it with Dennis this year. I left it with him last year and he did very well. So everything will be fine there."

"I wasn't worried about The Quibbler, Luna. I'm worried about _you_." She cocks her head at me like an inquisitive bird.

"Why?" She asks, evidently confounded.

"Because… you're sad?"

"Not yet."

"But you will be."

"Only for three days." She tells me, like it's nothing.

"Well… can I help?" At this, she smiles at me again but this time, it doesn't make me want to smile back.

"No, Blaise, you can't. No one can. And that's okay. I'll be fine."

"Luna…"

"I'll be fine Blaise. Don't worry about me. Three days is all I need and I'll be back to my normal self." I raise an eyebrow at that last comment.

"Well…"

"How would you classify 'normal' Blaise?" She asks, her smile millimetres wider, her version of a grin. I laugh, surprisingly enough.

"Good point." There are a few moments of silence. "You sure you'll be alright?"

"I'll be completely fine Blaise. Didn't you have a thing on now-ish?" I turn to check the time on the clock over the door and sure enough, I'm almost late for my meeting.

Standing quickly, I help Luna stack all of her work into a relatively neat pile before we both pay for our lunch and head out to the alley next to the café. Luna fiddles with her papers unconsciously, mumbling to herself. I fight the urge to smile fondly at her.

"I'll send you an owl about the next time we'll meet up." She informs me. She seems distracted and withdrawn and so, without thinking, I reach over and touch her arm in a way I hope is soothing.

"You sure you're alright, Luna?" Instead of replying, she looks down very slowly until her eyes reach my hand and I remember that she doesn't like to be touched. Instantly, I take my hand off her arm. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot." She doesn't say a word, just frowns at her arm.

"Do that again?" She says so quietly I can hardly hear her.

Very gently, I place my hand on her arm then, almost instantly, raise it off again.

"How odd." She summarises quietly. "How very odd. Anyway, I'll see you in a few days, Blaise. I'll owl you."

"Okay, just let me know if I can do anything, okay?"

"I'll be fine Blaise. I'll see you in a few days."

And without saying a word more, she apparates away.

* * *

28th June, 2003

Yes, I am pacing nervously. Yes, I am worried about Luna. Yes, I do consider her a friend now. Yes, I did receive a copy of The Quibbler today because, yes, I asked and paid for it. Yes, I am thinking of apparating to her house to make sure she's okay.

Yes, I am completely screwed.

My work day is over and I am at home- in my big empty home that has never felt darker, more bereft or more hopeless. Or maybe it's not the house, maybe it's me that feels hopeless, I don't fucking know. Either way, my big impressive house is no longer fun.

I am not in a good mood.

Thinking it might distract me, I pick up a book from the bookshelf by the entrance hall into my study and turn a few pages. Nothing catches my eye. Sighing deeply, I throw the book onto my desk and try looking for a better one.

"Mister Zabini?" My house-elf, Nottie, asks unexpectedly. I look up and wait for him to continue. "Mister Draco Malfoy is here to see you. He seems most out of sorts sir, he does." I hesitate, trying to figure out whether to let him in or send him away. Ultimately, my need for a distraction wins out.

"Send him in." I tell Nottie gruffly, and the little creature bounds off quickly. I go back to my search for a good book.

"Blaise." Draco greets from the door. I glance up and look at him. He looks awful. His hair is all messy and his eyes are sad and lost. I know immediately what happened.

"She forgot you?" He looks about to cry.

Not in my house you don't Malfoy. I don't care how many times your girlfriend forgets she likes you, we are not going to be holding hands around a campfire. This is not that kind of house.

"Got any firewhisky?" He asks instead of answering my question, which actually does answer my question in its own way.

"Sure I do. Sit down." Drinking I can do. I reach for my finest bottle and pour us each a glass. As soon as I pass it to Draco, he shoots it down, so I immediately give him a refill. He looks like he needs it. "Slow down, mate. Take it easy."

"Do you think I'm a glutton for punishment?" Draco questions, looking into his glass of alcohol as though it holds the answer to all life's questions.

"Honestly: yes. I really don't know what you're thinking Draco. This can never end well, you must know that?"

"I do, but I also know that I feel the best I ever have when I'm with her, like I want to smile every minute just because she's there." He takes another sip of his drink. I turn my glass in my hands. "It's fucking brutal. Every time she forgets, it's like someone's kicked me in the nuts and then rammed my head into a wall. It's dizzying and fucking painful."

"Then why do you keep going back?"

"Because when she remembers," And finally he grins. "It's fucking brilliant." I groan, rolling my eyes. Fucking pansy. "Don't knock it, Blaise. You don't know."

"I can't believe you're going through all this bullshit just for a good lay."

"Slytherin, Blaise, it's not just the lay. Although admittedly, that is pretty good."

"Fuck off, I don't need to know!" Merlin, there's something wrong with everybody today.

"You asked." Draco replies, smirking. Then his mood deflates and he once again looks lost. "I just wish I knew how to keep her here."

"Wish I could help you, mate, but I'm drawing a blank."

"You're useless Blaise. Although you do have good firewhisky." He takes another glug and finishes his glass, then reaches for the bottle again. He pours himself a generous amount. I have the feeling he's set on finishing the bottle.

"Want to stay here tonight?" I ask, not really liking the idea of my friend losing an arm trying to apparate whilst drunk.

"Probably a good idea. Thanks mate."

"No problem." I reassure him.

And instantly, my mind drifts to my other friend who is hurting. My other friend who is alone right now.

Fuck it.

"You know where everything is right? I'm going out for a few hours." I stand and take out my wand.

"Where you going?" Draco asks curiously.

"None of your fucking business Malfoy." And before he can say another word, I apparate to Luna's house.

* * *

**A/N: So, thoughts? Please drop me a line and let me know. Think of it like this: Within two chapters of my TMI fic, I've received 15 reviews. That's around 7 per chapter. Try and beat that. :)**

**Anyway, laters.**

**Love Stormy. xoxo**


	8. Filling in the Blanks

**Disclaimer: Not JK. If I were, I would use my infinite riches to buy a Segway. Alas, I do not own a Segway. Thus, not JK.**

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been a while. Got distracted by... things. **

**Did people watch Eurovision? Such a weird year! And I love Petra, she's a great host. I watched the actual acts and voted this morning but I didn't have the energy to deal with the results which take FOREVER so I don't actually know who won so NO SPOILERS- I'll watch the encore tonight- but I love Russia- the damn man was bloody floating!- and I actually love Azerbaijan, that girl is hot, although wasn't so sure about the costume. Shout out to my home girl, Dami Im from Australia (WHOO!), who was absolutely magnificent, I thought, and who blinded her competition with that fabulous dress and weird silvery ****hand ****thingy. Oh the joys of Eurovision.**

**Anyway, to my thank you's- thank you to:**

Doll482223, nightgoddess91, siewchee12345, guillermina, caytilyn, La pluie minuit** and **bookwormgirl91 **for following,**

Honoria Granger, siewchee12345** and **burniamber** for favouriting,**

**and **Honoria Granger**\- Two reviews in a week, I love you!- and **Laslathea (Guest) **for reviewing!**

**One of the reviews from **Honoria Granger** said that I had too much Bluna, which I actually have to agree with. So here is another Dramione and I'll come back to Bluna later on. Good deal? **

**Anyway, please let me know what you guys think, I genuinely love your reviews.**

**Enjoy, have fun, say hi, REVIEWW!**

* * *

Hermione's POV

Present Day

"And that, children, is where I think we'll leave it today." Blaise interrupted Luna's story.

"Aww, but it was just getting good!" I argued good-naturedly. Draco sent me a wink as Cassie hurriedly agreed, begging for more, more, more!

Luna smiled indulgently at Blaise before, quite unexpectedly, whopping him over the back of his head. "Ow! Merlin woman, no need to be violent. Especially in front of the guests."

"And a toddler." I add for him.

"Exactly, and a toddler. Thank you Hermione." Luna just looked at him, looking the tiniest bit exasperated. "See the abuse I deal with? I am a battered husband." Blaise mentioned, faux traumatised.

"Keep on like that and you _will_ be a battered husband." Luna informs her husband, her voice still small and dreamy, and somehow all the more frightening because of it.

"Sweet Salazar, Luna, you are terrifying." Blaise said, sounding awed then he gave a quick, adoring smile that looked like it should have stayed in the bedroom. "I love you."

I heard a slapping sound next to me and turned to see that Draco had slapped his forehead into his hand around our daughter's head who is still seated in his lap. I raise my eyebrows at his pained expression.

"I went into business with a moron." He explained, his grey eyes flashing with amusement. It made me smile, which was incredibly odd. I felt like my face was not in direct contact with my brain, like it was doing its own thing regardless of what I was telling it to do. "Just kill me, just kill me now. Just avada me and get it over with." I fight back a snort.

"No Daddy." Cassie disagreed with a certain amount of childish superiority. "Mumma can't kill you."

"You're right, that would be counter-productive." Cassie frowned at the big word, and I shared a smile with Luna. "How about we kill Uncle Blaise then?" Draco suggested and Cassie spun around looking excited.

"Can I tickle him?" She begged excitedly.

"That's a wonderful idea. Tickle him to death." Her father agreed and Cassie jumped off his lap.

Blaise hopped up from his chair and started jogging away from her as Cassie sprinted after him, yelling: "I'm gonna _get_ you Unkie Byaise!"

"Oh no, the tickle monster's gonna get me. Help me Auntie Luna!" Blaise yelled playfully, jogging around us at the kitchen table.

"I have absolutely no desire to be attacked by the tickle monster so you're on your own." Luna replied, taking a sip of her tea, her eyes preoccupied but happy.

"I thought we were supposed to be partners in this marriage!" Blaise cried indignantly, dodging Cassie's onslaught.

"I never promised to sacrifice myself to the tickle monster for you." I blinked about thirty times, shocked at the humour coming from Luna. I heard Draco failing at trying to keep his amusement to himself. "No, I specifically remember never promising that."

"Well, that's it. I am not making dinner tonight!"

"Good! I would prefer not to die by food poisoning tonight."

Evidently annoyed by his lack of support, Blaise took off in the direction of the living room and, laughing, Cassie followed him, still screaming about she was going to '_get_ him!' Draco chuckled after them, rolling his eyes.

"I will never understand her fetish for tickling. I would worry about it if I hadn't already banned her from dating before she's forty." I snorted, slapping a hand over my mouth.

"And you think that's going to work?" Draco narrowed his eyes at me.

"It better bloody work." He grumbled. "She's not allowed to have a romantic relationship until she's old enough to not be interested in sex." Now I openly laughed.

"Yeah, that's really not going to work. Look at who her dad is." His eyes narrowed further until they were almost slits.

"I'm hoping she'll follow in her mum's footsteps." He all but growled. I raised my eyebrows at him.

Draco Malfoy: concerned father. Who'd have thought?

"Thanks for having us over, Luna." Draco changed the topic quickly, still sounding slightly sulky.

Luna smiled at both of us and nodded quietly, still sipping her tea. Watching her made me yearn for coffee, and then I started to wonder if I was even allowed to have coffee anymore which instantly deflated my mood. Damn pregnancy. I heard giggling from the doorway and saw Blaise holding Cassie upside-down by the ankles.

I instantly jumped up and flew across the floor on my knees, holding my arms out to catch my daughter should Zabini drop her. Cassie grinned at me and continued giggling.

"Calm down, 'Mione. Blaise never drops the ball." Draco laughed. I turned to glare at him.

"That's not a ball. That's _my daughter_." I growled dangerously. Grinning, Draco raised both hands in surrender, backing off. I turned back to Blaise and he was watching me carefully. Cassie was still laughing crazily. "Now, _very carefully_, put my daughter down." I instructed, and something in my tone made Cassie stop laughing.

Blaise brought his knee up so Cassie's back was resting on it then quickly let go and relocated his hands under her arms, picked her up and settled my daughter on her feet. I enfolded her in my arms.

"Never pegged you for a smother mother, Hermione." Blaise commented, looking on the verge of smiling. I glared at him.

"Mumma, you're hugging me too tight." Cassie complained, squirming away. Reluctantly, I let her go, standing up again.

Cassie danced back over to Blaise and beckoned him down to her level. He bent one knee and leant his head closer to her. She placed a hand over his ear and whispered something in his ear and I watched in irritated, confounded silence as Blaise grinned and nodded, whispering back that it was 'their secret'. I tried to ignore the pang of hurt that speared through me, hot and heavy.

"I think we'd better go before my wife kills you, mate." Draco said, pushing himself out of his seat. The title still sent a shock through me, though it wasn't as violent now. I hated that this seemed so natural now. It should _not_ be natural.

"Good plan. So you'll talk with-" Blaise began before Draco cut him off.

"Yes, yes, I'll talk to him. Probably better me than you anyway. You scare the hell out of him." The men shared a chuckle and shook hands, patting each other on the back.

Draco turned to Luna again and thanked her for having us over, but my head felt disturbingly spinny and fuzzy, full of haphazard thoughts and denials and ideas that this was all _wrong_, and I couldn't keep up. I closed my eyes as I heard Cassie saying goodbye to Luna and Blaise, not wanting to feel the tug on my heart at her angelic, childish voice. When I opened them again, Draco was watching me strangely, something going on in his eyes that I thought I should be able to interpret but I couldn't. I ran a shaky hand through my hair and reached a hand out for Cassie who skipped towards me and grabbed a hold of my hand. She looked up at me and smiled and I forced a smile back at her.

Next thing I knew, Draco was grabbing my other hand and taking his wand out to apparate away. Luna gave a funny little wave as Blaise wrapped his arms around her shoulders, kissing her cheek, and then we were apparating.

* * *

My head was no less spinny and fuzzy by the time we got back to the manor- in fact, it was actually worse because of the apparating. Cassie immediately let go of my hand to go play with something in the next room and for a second, there was an awkward silence between Draco and I.

"Remind me tomorrow that I need to get an owl to Fredericks about the distribution of rotwort and then I need to talk with-" He started, sounding entirely reasonable. I hated him.

"Yeah, that's really not going to happen." I hissed, entirely _un_reasonable. Looking over at me, my husband raised his eyebrows at me and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're in a mood." He commented and I glared at him.

"Gee, I wonder why? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm _pregnant_, now could it?"

Flint grey eyes sparked with something, something that I couldn't really put my finger on, but then he chuckled darkly, shaking his head at me and when he replied, he sounded exhausted.

"It's actually amazing how much I _didn't_ miss that excuse." He told me, his jaw tight. "Grow up, Hermione. You can't remember- I'm sure that's very hard. But it's even harder on the people you leave behind. Forget about me for a second, what about your daughter? Or Harry or Ginny or Ron? They can't even share their lives with you because you're never there." Running a hand through his hair, Draco breathed out a frustrated sigh. "Look, I'm not going to do this with you now. I'm going to go look after _our_ daughter so… come find me when you're behaving less like a child."

And with that, he stormed out, calling Cassie over for a bath, leaving me alone with my chaotic thoughts.

* * *

My brain would not shut up. There was too much going on in there; it was giving me a headache.

After putting Cassie to bed, I immediately went back to the sitting room and poured over the photo albums in front of me, trying to figure out what was going through my mind in each picture. I couldn't stop my thoughts from jumbling about inside my mind. It wasn't as if there was an easy answer to every question that was in there. In fact every single question had a difficult answer. Most of them didn't even _have_ an answer.

I didn't think I could handle any more surprises but I had a feeling my life was going to be full of surprises for the foreseeable future.

Why couldn't I remember? My brain was supposed to be my closest ally and my most valuable asset- so why did it decide to fail me? How did it break? Who broke it? What broke it? Why did my body and my mind not see eye to eye? And why did it take so long for my brain to catch up?

So many times today I had caught myself laughing or smiling at something Draco had said like my mouth had a life all to itself. It didn't make sense at all. Draco Malfoy was not _funny_; he was a slimy little ferret. What was wrong with me that I had laughed at him, smiled at him, befriended him? And what in Merlin's name was wrong with me that I had _married_ him and had a _kid_ with him? Heck, I currently was _making_ a baby with him!

I groaned and smacked my head down on the photo albums, hating my overloaded brain.

"Oh, I know that groan." I heard an amused voice say from the doorway. My head snapped up quickly and I locked eyes with Draco as he leant with his arms crossed against the threshold of the door. "Not my favourite groan, I don't think."

"What?" I demanded, totally lost. Draco smirked and kicked himself off the doorframe, walking over to me.

"Never mind. I bet you're thinking 'what the bloody hell was I doing?' right?" He concluded.

"What?"

"And your brain is on overload and not being helpful at all, is it?"

"How did you know that?" I asked curiously. Draco sat down next to me, leaning back on the sofa.

"I know the signs. Photo albums, groaning, and…" Slowly, he reached over and picked up a strand of my hair, running it through his fingers. "You always manage to tie your hair back without a hair tie. I will never figure out how you do that." I chuckled and ran my hands through my hair, unsnagging it from itself.

"I do that when I'm thinking. I don't like it in my eyes." I explained. Draco smiled patiently.

"I know." He said simply. I gave him a quick glance.

"Of course you do." I replied on a sigh. "This is so weird."

Hesitantly, Draco reached over and ran a hand over my hair, stroking it back from my face. Once again, before my brain can caught up, my body reacted all on its own. I leant back and curled under his arm, placing my arm over his chest and my cheek on his shoulder. Draco's hand rested on my upper arm, keeping me close.

Then my brain caught up and I instantly tensed, wondering what the hell I was doing. Draco must have noticed because his hand immediately lifted off me, waiting for me to move. Instead, my head began dissecting how this felt.

It didn't feel bad. It actually felt quite nice. I was comfortable, warm, relaxed- for some strange reason I felt protected or like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

So ignoring the yelling in my brain, I once again relaxed into my husband and his hand once again rested on my upper arm.

"Go ahead." He said after a while, breaking the silence.

"What?" I replied, befuddled.

"You've got questions and I know most of the answers. So ask me."

"Oh." Was my brilliant response. "Well… um… what did we do for her first birthday?"

And the conversation went on from there. I learnt about my daughter. I learnt about my friends and their kids. I learnt about how Hogwarts had changed. I learnt about the new Care of Magical Creatures laws I helped put in place. But mostly, I learnt about my husband.

I learnt about how he started his business and why he did so. I learnt about why he sought me out after getting out of Azkaban. I learnt about our relationship. I learnt why he chose to stay with me, what made him keep coming back when the obvious answer was to leave. I learnt so much more than my diary told me.

And at some point during that night, I fell asleep, my head on my husband's shoulder while he held me close and filled in the blanks.

* * *

**A/N: So thoughts? It was a bit short, sorry about that. But did it work? I wanted to get a little bit of confusion on Hermione's part in there. Did it work? **

**Also, what do you guys think of doing a chapter in Draco's POV? Or someone else's? **

**Anyway, I'm off to go sing Sound Of Silence at the top of my lungs. **

**Have fun, say hi, REVIEW!**

**Lots of virtual love**

**Stormy. xoxox**


	9. False Hope

**Disclaimer: Not JK.**

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back, sorry it took so long! **

**I asked last time if people wanted a chapter in Draco's POV and you did so it took a little longer to get into his mindset properly. I'm not entirely happy with the first bit but I like the ending, but please do let me know what you think.**

**Thank you to:**

Elphiegalinda, .fantastic, mom2carlo, Andrea71, dreamingdarling, , Redrobin1, luupitaoropeza, huntressofthewest, StarrySilverMoon **and** vani12 **for following,**

mom2carlo, huntressofthewest, samanthakp, tsukinopen, gleeks4all, StarrySilverMoon **and **vani12 ** for favouriting,**

**And **La pluie minuit, mom2carlo (Twice) Honoria Granger (What are you concerned about, can I clear it up?) .fantastic (Wow, long review! Thank you!) huntressofthewest, LittleGrowl, tsukinopen **and **StarrySilverMoon (Twice) **for reviewing! Love you's all!**

**Anyway, I'll let you get to it. Please let me know what you think of Draco's POV. I had to rewrite it a few times which is why it took so long. Anyway, let me know.**

**Enjoy, have fun, say hi, REVIEWW!**

* * *

Draco's POV

Present Time

Some think that my relationship with my wife is psychotic or twisted. I prefer to think of it as hopeful.

I remember the first time I saw her after getting out of Azkaban, reading in the Weasley courtyard. I remember her listening to me as I apologised for standing by while my aunt tortured her, how she said she forgave me and how utterly relieved I felt. I remember how she smiled at my expression and started asking me questions about what I was going to do now that I was out of Azkaban out of politeness.

I remember the next time I saw her, again in the Weasley courtyard a few months later. Harry had invited me there for his birthday. Being my parole officer, Harry and I had had a few conversations together and that had led to us having the occasional pint at the Leaky Cauldron. At some point, Ron had started coming along too and so by the time Harry had invited me over for his birthday, we were on reasonably good terms.

When I had arrived at the party, having struggled to get Theo, Blaise and Pansy to come along too, the party was already happening, however none of my posse seemed to think there was an acceptable amount of drinking going on, which would eventually become a kind of traditional complaint. They all sodded off in search of some form of entertainment and left me to wonder around on my own. At some point, I found Hermione sitting by herself watching the fun.

I remember she glared at me and I was momentarily taken aback till I recalled why she would forget that she forgave me. There had been a moment of calculating silence before she had huffed and jerked her head to the side, inviting me silently to have a seat. We had spent the rest of the night complaining when we spotted Ron and Pansy off snogging in a corner.

After that, being at the Weasley's became a regular thing. Ron was big on 'game nights'; namely Exploding-Snap and Wizards' Chess and Ginny loved playing Quiddich- big surprise there, right? And because Hermione was living there, gradually, after a lot of buffering and forgetting and one-sided glares and hisses, a friendship grew.

Some days it was awkward. Some days, it was absolutely fun. Hermione was- is- viciously intelligent and quick as a whip. She had absolutely no patience for my fard-arse-ing around and she was able to point out when I was being a prat in a way that actually made me think and not just laugh it off. The girl was constantly making me think in different ways and look at life with a new perspective.

Problem was: I didn't actually realise I was falling in love with her till it was too late to stop it. The day I realised was a cloudy spring night. I found her in the Weasley courtyard at ten o'clock at night, looking up at the stars with a wistful look on her face.

I had approached slowly; making sure it was okay that I was there. She must have heard my footsteps because she turned her head just before I got to her. The left side of her mouth had lifted up in a half-smile.

"Hey Draco." She had said simply before going back to her looking.

"You alright?" My voice had been tentative.

"The stars don't change. It's oddly reassuring." I had chuckled darkly and sat down next to her.

"I used to look at the stars in Azkaban. Well… star. You could only see one star in Azkaban."

"Why was that?"

"Azkaban is supposed to be entirely without hope, you know. And stars apparently give people hope or something. So they put up guards to block out the stars around the prison." I had leant against the back of the chair, threading my hands behind my head. "Problem is they didn't take into account that Mother Nature is a stubborn old gal so one star got through the guards. They couldn't figure out how." Hermione had quirked an eyebrow at me and leant back as well.

"It surprises me that we're the 'good guys' and yet we won't even let people look at stars."

"Humans are mostly pretty shit. Surprised you haven't figured that out by now."

And instead of being irritated by my lack of faith in humanity, Hermione had just smiled and gone back to looking, staring up at the sky with that wistful look on her face.

Sitting there looking at her, it had suddenly occurred to me how lovely she looked in the night, how the light of the moon cast a slightly silvery glow on her pale skin, how her eyes sparkled with the light of the stars, how her smile made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. And I had begun to think about how her opinion actually did matter to me more than anyone I knew, how often I came to her for conversation even when I knew she had forgotten again and she would hate me again, how I sought out her advice quite a lot of the time, how I enjoyed her company and her reactions to my humour, how I often thought about how certain things during my day would amuse her or upset her or inspire her.

And it had occurred to me- sitting next to her on that bench seat in the Weasley's courtyard while she stared up at the stars- that I was undeniably in love with her.

And my thoughts had been precisely as follows: Well. Fuck.

Fast forward a few years and it had been my wedding day. As the love of my life had stood next to me at the altar, I had never been more content- or more socially awkward to be honest. Despite what you may think, declaring my love in front of mostly strangers was not something that appealed to me all that much.

But when it got to the part where we would be exchanging vows, I couldn't not say them. She looked so beautiful and slightly scared; like she knew what I was thinking and worried I wouldn't say anything. Reaching into my inside jacket pocket, I had pulled out my vows and looked down at them, which was unnecessary really- I already had it memorised.

"Hermione," I had started, looking down into the beautiful brown eyes of my beautiful Hermione. "I know that our story is a fairly odd one. It always has been. But I promise here and now to never let that oddness push me away from you. I promise to never give up on what we have. I promise to always be there when you need me. I promise to stand by your side when you're right and to put you back on the right course when you're not. I promise to look after every child we have, to keep them safe and secure and unharmed. I promise to be a friend, a companion, a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on for you. But most importantly, I promise to respect you, cherish you and love you as deeply as I can for as long as I'm still kicking."

And Hermione had smiled that wonderful, beaming smile that I love so very much, her eyes shining with unshed tears. And I knew right then and there that what I was promising was the truth. I would never let her go, I would never leave and I would never give up. She was mine and I was hers and it would remain that way for as long as I lived.

* * *

So now you have a bit of story, we come to today. Hermione still forgets me and it still hits me like a sucker punch every time. She has asked me about it a few times, why I stay, what's in it for me. I give her a different reason every time because there are so many reasons, I can't possibly put them all into an adequate series of sentences again and again.

You would think, after so long that I would figure out a way to deal with the pain when she forgets but the truth is: it's still as bad as the first time. It still like someone ripped my lungs out, turned my stomach upside down and stirred my brain around. Basically, it's extremely uncomfortable and painful.

As I sat at my daughter's tiny table having a tea party with Cassie, Teddy- her bear- Jemima, Becky, Rosie- Cassie's dolls- and Tiger- her stuffed cat- I smiled as my baby had conversations with her toys, marvelling at how clever she was, how grown up she was already.

"Do you want more tea, Daddy?" Cassie asked me, offering her pink, empty teapot.

"Oh no, Cass. I'm not done with this cup yet." I replied, taking a sip of my imaginary tea.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah bubba?" Suddenly, my girl sounded serious as she looked over at me with her big eyes.

"Um… Jemima's sad." My ears pricked up immediately and I dropped my teacup into its plastic saucer, giving her my full attention.

"Is she? Why is that Cass?"

"Well, because Mumma always forgets about Jemima and Becky and Rosie and Tiger and Teddy and Kitzy and… um… dollhouse and… um… Unkie Byaise and… um… Auntie Pansy and Unkie Thee-thee. But she never forgets about Unkie Hawwy and Unkie Ron and Auntie Jimmy and Cuzzie Teddy. So Jemima is sad because she thinks Mumma doesn't love her." Oh my sweet darling girl.

"Does Jemima sometimes forget things?"

"Yes. But she never forgets Mumma." Cassie said like she was trying not to cry. "Why does Mumma forget her?"

"You know how you were sick a little while ago?" Cassie wrinkled up her nose. "And you had to wait a long time to get better?"

"Yeah?"

"Well that's what's wrong with Mumma, except she's not better yet."

"So Mumma's sick?"

"Yeah sweetie. Mumma's sick."

"So she needs me'cine?"

"That's right; we're trying to find her the right medicine."

"Can we help look Daddy?" Cassie exclaimed, sounding excited. I smiled at her.

"You want to help Mumma?"

"Yeah, we do, don't we guys?" Cassie looked over at her toys, hearing their silent agreement. "Yeah, we want to help, Daddy!"

"Okay, that's fantastic."

"Can we look for me'cine in the pita books Daddy?" I grinned at the excitement in my daughter's huge eyes.

"Yeah, look in there. There might be something I missed." Grabbing all her toys and dumping them in her little carry basket, Cassie started running for the door just as Hermione came in.

"Mumma, Daddy told us you're sick and you need me'cine!" Hermione's eyebrows rose and her eyes snapped over to connect with mine.

"Is that right?" She asked in reply, not taking her eyes off mine.

"Yeah and so we're gonna go look in the pita books to help you find your me'cine!"

"Well that's a very good idea, Cassie. You go have fun." Jumping forward, Cassie threw her arms around her mother's legs. Hermione bent down and placed her hands on Cassie's back.

"Don't worry Mumma. We'll help you get better." And with that, Cassie flitted off to find Mumma's medicine in the picture books.

Leaving me with a slightly irritated-looking Hermione.

"Why did you do that?!" Hermione hissed, her eyes flashing. Unfortunately for her, I always thought she looked sexy when she was pissed off so if she was trying to intimidate me, she was failing miserably.

"Do what exactly?"

"Tell her I'm just sick? That's giving her hope and she doesn't need that!"

"Then what does she need, Hermione?" That shut her up. Standing up, I walked slowly towards her. "Did you listen to that entire conversation? Because Cassie just informed me- in a very childishly subtle way- that she doesn't think you love her. And who can blame her? You remember her Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron and Auntie Ginny- basically every Weasley aunt and uncle, even her cousin, but you don't remember her. And she's your _daughter_." I could see the cogs turning in my wife's head from the look on her face, and I knew that she was trying to figure out what to say next. "What I am trying to do is give your daughter some hope that someday, you might love her back. Even if it's not true." And with that, I shoved past her into the hallway, feeling absurdly angry at everything in my life. Hermione followed me.

"I can't believe you would throw that in my face, you slimy little ferret! Of course I love my daughter!" Spinning on my heel, I faced her again, just opposite the front door.

"Oh really? Because I know that face, Hermione. I know what's going on in that idiotic, know-it-all head of yours and I _know_ you're thinking 'This is not real, this is a dream, this can't be true'. And _that_ is why your daughter feels this way, because you keep fighting it!"

"Well what do you expect?! I wake up one day and realise I've married my enemy! I've had a kid with him! Can you not imagine how that would be unfathomable to me?!" There is a split second of silence before I open the front door and gesture grandly to it.

"So leave." Hermione's mouth dropped open in shock.

"What?"

"Leave. The thought of having a kid with me, your worst enemy, is clearly disturbing to you. Disgusting to you. _Unfathomable_ to you. So leave."

"I- I- I- I-" She stuttered, staring at me with those big brown eyes that I love so much, with that shocked, confused look I know so well.

I left the door open for a few more seconds before slamming it closed and walking towards her, looking into her eyes.

"See, you can't." I told her, walking closer still, till she has to tip her head back to look me in the eye. "Because deep down, under all that overanalysing and irritating thinking, you know- _you know_\- you love our daughter- you know you love me."

"I- I- I-" I crept closer towards her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"You know you love me." I told her.

"I- I-" She kept stuttering as I laid my other hand tenderly over her cheek.

"You know you love me." I whispered again.

"I-"

"You know you love me." I breathed one more time before finally- _finally_\- my lips found hers.

* * *

**A/N: So thoughts?! Kissing, YAYY! Thoughts? Please let me know.**

**Anyway, I'll let you go. Please let me know what you thought and if you want me to do a Draco POV again or back to Bluna or a Hermione POV or someone else I haven't thought of. **

**Have fun, say hi, REVIEWW! Please?**

**Love**

**Stormy. xoxox**


	10. Bedtime Memories

**Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling.**

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been a while. Things got a little hectic for a while.**

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**This chapter takes off where last chapter ended, but in Hermione's POV. Feel free to read the last chapter just as a recap if you like. **

**Much love,**

**Enjoy, have fun, say hi, REVIEWW!**

* * *

Hermione's POV

"Why did you do that?!" I hissed, my eyes flashing. I was completely pissed off, almost irrationally angry. How dare Malfoy raise my daughter's hopes like that? Her heart is only going to end up breaking, how dare he hurt her like that?!

"Do what exactly?" He replied, sounding exasperated. How dare he?!

"Tell her I'm just sick? That's giving her hope and she doesn't need that!"

"Then what does she need, Hermione?" I didn't know how to reply to that. Standing up, he sauntered slowly towards me. "Did you listen to that entire conversation? Because Cassie just informed me- in a very childishly subtle way- that she doesn't think you love her. And who can blame her? You remember her Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron and Auntie Ginny- basically every Weasley's aunt and uncle, even her cousin, but you don't remember her. And she's your daughter." I wanted to reply to this accusation, but I couldn't think properly, too confused and angry to do so. "What I am trying to do is give your daughter some hope that someday, you might love her back. Even if it's not true." And with that, he shoved past me into the hallway. Shocked, hurt and angry, I followed him.

"I can't believe you would throw that in my face, you slimy little ferret! Of course I love my daughter!" Spinning on his heel, he faced me again, just opposite the front door.

"Oh really? Because I know that face, Hermione. I know what's going on in that idiotic, know-it-all head of yours and I know you're thinking 'This is not real, this is a dream, this can't be true'. And that is why your daughter feels this way, because you keep fighting it!" I hated how much he knew me, how close to the truth those statements were.

"Well what do you expect?! I wake up one day and realise I've married my enemy! I've had a kid with him! Can you not imagine how that would be unfathomable to me?!" There was a split second of silence before he opened the front door and gestured grandly to it.

"So leave." My mouth dropped open in shock.

"What?" I demanded, totally nonplussed.

"Leave. The thought of having a kid with me, your worst enemy, is clearly disturbing to you. Disgusting to you. Unfathomable to you. So leave." I hated that I felt like crying at the hurt in his voice, hardly covered up by feigned disinterest.

"I- I- I- I-" I stuttered, unsure what to say.

He left the door open for a few more seconds before slamming it closed and walking towards me, looking into my eyes. And my body started betraying me again. My breathing picked up pace, as did my heart. My brain was fuzzy still, but not because of anger. Instead, my head started analysing how close he was, how he looked, even how he smelt. And none of it disgusted me. Instead, my body wanted him closer. I watched him closely as he took measured steps towards me until he was so close he could touch me.

"See, you can't." He told me, walking closer still, till I had to tip my head back to look him in the eye. "Because deep down, under all that overanalysing and irritating thinking, you know- you know- you love our daughter- you know you love me." I couldn't understand what he was saying.

"I- I- I-" He crept closer towards me and wrapped an arm around my waist. I should have shaken it off, but I liked it there. It felt natural. Normal. I liked him holding me.

"You know you love me." He told me. I wanted to deny him, but something stopped me.

"I- I-" I kept stuttering as he laid his other hand tenderly over my cheek. It felt warm and comfortable.

"You know you love me." He whispered again, leaning towards me.

"I-"

"You know you love me." Draco breathed one more time before his lips found mine.

It should have been terrifying. It should have been disgusting. I should have pushed him away and screamed the whole house down.

But instead, my whole body relaxed, all the tension leaving me until I was blissfully calm. My eyes shut of their own accord, my mouth letting out a soft sigh. And then, I was kissing him back, moving my lips with his like I knew what I was doing, despite the fact that this was the first kiss that I remembered.

My head should have been chaotic, but it was calm. My body should have been shivering in disgust, but it was steady. My lips should have been as solid and unrelenting as marble, but they moved with his with easy grace.

I had read stories about kissing people, about how their bodies ignited in fire. But this wasn't like that. It was like coming home, sitting in front of a heater, wrapping up in a blanket with a warm cup of tea. It was warm, yes, but it was also comfortable, familiar, almost cosy.

And for some inexplicable reason, I wanted more. I liked what was happening to me, how Draco was holding me, how his hands felt in my hair and on the small of my back. I liked how my lips were tingling and how my breaths were quickening and my heart was beating stronger than before.

I liked how alive this made me feel.

The kiss lasted for I don't know how long before slowly- oh so slowly- Draco pulled away, planting a delicate, tender kiss on my forehead as he straightened up. And then we were silent, and his hand in my hair pressed my forehead against his chest, my ear against his heart which was beating steady and strong. He ran his other hand along my back, smoothing my hair. And it was comforting. It was nice. It lifted a weight off my shoulders, one I didn't know I was holding there.

"I'm still mad at you." I finally said, unable to stop the grin as it formed on my face.

"And I'm still mad at you." Draco replied, and I could hear his answering grin in his voice.

"What did _I_ do?" I demanded indignantly.

"You called me a slimy ferret. I believe that is called 'bullying'." I scowled into his chest and then surprised myself by squeezing my arms around his waist. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Mrs Malfoy."

I didn't tense at the name- but realising that I didn't tense made me freeze and instantly, Draco loosened his hold on me, pulling me away and holding my face in his hands. His face was creased in concern, his eyes looked wary.

"You okay, 'Mione?" I frowned and thought about my answer before I replied.

"Yeah," I said, chuckling. "Surprisingly enough, I'm actually okay. This is weird."

"You're telling me, love." Draco agreed.

I chuckled again and pulled away, smiling as I walked back to our room, planning what to write in my diary. As I exited the hallway, I looked back over my shoulder to see Draco smirking triumphantly after me. I rolled my eyes at him.

* * *

I sat on my bed hours later looking through one of the books I found in the Malfoy library- yeah; I had my own library- smothered in blankets and surrounded by pillows. Next to me, Draco was hunched over an anthology of papers, muttering to himself about whatever it was he was reading. Every so often, I stole glances at him, my frown creasing deeper every time I did so.

The kiss we shared that day was still fresh in my mind, replaying over and over like a broken record. Every time I tried to figure it out, work out what on earth had been going on in my head, my brain sort of shut down like it was telling me to just go with it. But the truth was, I didn't want to go with it- I wanted to make sense of it.

Yes, Draco Malfoy was my husband- I had accepted that- but why was he my husband? Why had I married him? It didn't seem like something I would do- something so illogical and stupid, so headstrong and totally not like me. It couldn't have been something I would do without a second's thought. I would have thought about it, long and hard, so why was it so difficult for me to understand why now? I wished there was something more than my diary and the photos, something I could grab onto that made a little more sense of my world.

"You're distracting me, Hermione." Draco informed me, starting to grin as he looked down at his papers. "I know I'm extraordinary to look at but stop ogling me." I sputtered in indignation and looked back to my book, taking a sip of my hot chocolate which had been sitting on the bedside table.

"You have an extreme ego problem."

"So you keep telling me." He replied, sounding entirely amused. "I don't listen of course."

"Of course you don't. You wouldn't be Draco Malfoy if you did."

"Oh, you know me so well Hermione."

"Do I?" I asked, my voice almost silent, but he heard it.

"You do." He took my book from my hands and placed it on the nightstand, along with the papers he was reading. "I know that it can be confusing, but if you look hard enough, you know that you know me."

"But I don't!" I exclaimed, frustrated. "All I can remember is how you were at school."

"How do I like my tea?" He asked quietly, gazing at me intensely with those extraordinary flint eyes.

"What?"

"How do I like my tea?"

"But what does that have to-"

"Just trust me. How do I like my tea?"

I don't understand what he means, but even without thinking, I answer. "You don't." I frowned at myself, and then looked up at him. He smiled at me encouragingly and took my hand. "You like hot chocolate- with three sugars and… two marshmallows. And you like hot apple cider during Christmas time."

I didn't know where any of this information is coming from. I looked to him for approval, and his eyes shone with something like pride. I kept going.

"When you were a boy, you always thought it was your mum that made the hot chocolate. She'd bring it up to your bedroom in the morning, on a silver tray with toast and butter and… marmalade?"

"Apricot jam." He corrected with a grin.

"That's right. And then when you were… eight years old, you found out that it was the house-elves that made it, and you threw a tantrum and wouldn't eat breakfast until you left for Hogwarts. That was when you started having coffee in the mornings and hot chocolate in the afternoon."

"Exactly."

"How did I do that?" I demanded, throwing my head into my hands.

"You lost your short-term memory, Hermione, not your long term." He explained, placing a hand gently on the top of my head and stroking my hair. "All of that stuff, everything we've done together- all the fights, all the make-ups, every moment with Cassie- that's all still in there. If you stay for a little while, it starts coming back." I looked up at him, feeling suspiciously like I might cry.

Damn pregnancy hormones.

"I know this sucks- believe me, I am well aware of how sucky it is." He continued. "But you'll get there, Hermione, I know you will. You'll remember everything we've done, just like I do."

"This is so unfair." I moaned pitifully.

"On who?"

"On you and on… I'm ruining Cassie's life!" Draco rolled his eyes at me. "Well I am!"

"You think very highly of yourself, don't you? Cassie loves you. More than anything. More than… well, me, which is a little insulting, but moving on- you are not ruining her life. You're doing the best you can. She knows that."

"But I-"

"Shush." He placed a finger over my lips, silencing me. "How about we go to sleep? You'll feel better in the morning."

"But what if I…?" I trailed off, too ashamed to say the words.

"If that happens, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere, and we can just start again tomorrow." Carefully, he placed a hand on my cheek, smoothing his thumb along my cheekbone. "Do you want me to go sleep somewhere else tonight?"

I didn't answer, confused and overwhelmed. I looked down at my bedsheets, fiddling with the hem of the soft doona covering us. I didn't know what to say now, and as I reached further into my mind, I started coming up with all these facts about my husband.

How he preferred cold showers in the morning and hot showers at night. How he was terrified of hamsters and spider webs- not spiders, just their webs. How he read to Cassie every night- not because she asked but because he loved to read out loud. How he secretly loved sewing and would purposefully buy clothes that didn't quite fit so he could alter them himself.

Finally, I heard Draco sigh and he moved to kiss my forehead. He stood up and started heading towards the door.

"Draco, wait." I requested, my voice only just loud enough for him to hear. He stopped at the threshold to the door, but didn't turn around. "Can you- I mean-"

At my stuttering, Draco turned around, crossing his arms across his chest, but a faint smirk graced his lips and it gave me the courage to finish my sentence.

"Stay with me?"

Draco beamed, his whole face lighting up like Christmas morning. He strode across the room and hopped back into bed, wrapping his arms carefully around me and pulling me close. And once again, I felt that thing- that sense of utter completeness of being in his arms, safe and warm and comforted and cosy.

"Always, Hermione." He whispered in my ear, his warmth and closeness making me smile. "I'll always stay with you."

* * *

**A/N: So thoughts? It's not great, I know, but was it at least tolerable?**

**Thanks for sticking with me, and for reading. **

**Have fun, say hi, REVIEWW!**

**Love Stormy. xoxox**


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